Baptisia Tinctoria

Baptisia has gained its greatest reputation as a remedy in typhoid fever, to the

symptoms of which its pathogenesis strikingly corresponds. But it is only when it is used strictly

in accordance with its symptoms that it will give successful results. When given as a matter of

routine there are sure to be failures. Another disease in which it has proved specific in a large

number of cases is epidemic influenza. The besotted countenance, bleary eyes, aching head, sore

throat, pains and soreness all over the body, and profound prostration which are present in all

typical cases indicate Baptisia before any other remedy.

Among the chief symptoms of the remedy are the following: Stupor, falls asleep whilst being

spoken to, confused as if drunk. Cannot keep his mind together, a wild wandering feeling. This

scattered feeling is further exemplified in the illusion that the body is double; limbs separated

and conversing with each other; can't sleep because body seems scattered about and cannot

collect pieces. There is a dull heavy sensation in head with drowsiness and heavy eyelids. The

head feels large, with a numb feeling of head and face. Bruised headache; soreness as if in brain;

bruised feeling in occiput; heavy feeling at base of brain with drawing in cervical muscles.

Frontal headache with pressure at root of nose. The neck is tired, cannot hold head easy in any

position. The eyes cannot bear light; burn; are weak; painful on reading. Weight on eyes;

• ▸eyeballs sore, lame on moving.
• ▸Blear-eyed.
• ▸Lids partially paralysed.
• ▸An illusion of smell "as of

burnt feathers" has been caused and cured by it. Pain in left parotid gland. Flat, bitter taste.

Tongue swollen; feels numb; speech difficult. Is coated whitish yellow, and feels burnt or

• ▸scalded.
• ▸Dry, parched, brown centre; cracked and ulcerated.
• ▸Canker sores in mouth.
• ▸Ulcerations.

The sore-mouth of sucklings. Painlessness is a feature in the sore throat; putrid, painless, dark

ulcers. Esophagus feels constricted down to stomach; can only swallow liquids; cases of

convulsive contraction of cesophagus and cardiac orifice, with regurgitation of food, have been

cured by it. In one case, that of an old man, food could be swallowed and retained some days, but

• ▸not on others.
• ▸He had always liked very hot food.
• ▸The cesophagus was red and granular.
• ▸Bapt.
• ▸12

• ▸cured.
• ▸Nausea, retching and vomiting.
• ▸Sinking, gone feeling.
• ▸Pain in liver; and especially in gall-

bladder; in spleen; in right iliac region; in groins; glands swollen. Soreness of abdominal muscles

and right iliac region. Fetid exhausting diarrhoea; dysentery in autumn or hot weather. Worms.

The urine is high-coloured, scanty, alkaline, fetid. Orchitis, squeezed pain in testes. Hale

considers it specific in threatened miscarriage from mental depression, shock of bad news,

watching, fasting, or low fever. Patients in these conditions often complain of "dreadful sinking

at the stomach," fetid breath and other symptoms of Baptisia. Many cases of phthisis are relieved

by this remedy when the symptom and type of fever correspond. Lumbar backache. Feels as if

• ▸lying on a board.
• ▸Pain in sacrum.
• ▸Weakness of lower limbs.
• ▸Left foot much prickling and

numbness. Numbness and soreness are very general in Baptisia patients. It has cured hysteria

with prostration, numbness and fear of paralysis, wanted to die, rubbed hands continually,

• ▸restlessness.
• ▸The bed feels hard.
• ▸There is excessive drowsiness.
• ▸< On waking; < walking; < open

air; < cold wind; < autumn or hot weather.

• ▸Wild, wandering feeling.
• ▸Inability to think.
• ▸Mental confusion.
• ▸Ideas confused.
• ▸Illusion of divided personality.
• ▸Thinks he is broken or double, and tosses about the bed trying to get pieces together (Cajeput).
• ▸Delirium, wandering, muttering.
• ▸Perfect indifference.
• ▸Falls asleep while being spoken to.
• ▸Melancholia, with stupor.

Stupor; falls asleep while being spoken to, or answering; heavy sleep till aroused;

awakes only to again fall asleep in the midst of his answer, which he vainly endeavours to

finish.—Indisposed to think, want of power; mind seems weak, confused, as if drunk.—Cannot

confine his mind: a sort of wild, wandering feeling —Gloomy, unhappy state of mind.—Body

feels scattered about, tosses around to get the pieces together; cannot sleep because he cannot get

pieces together.—Mind wanders as soon as the eyes are closed.—Mentally restless but too lifeless

to move.—Indisposed to think; inability to memorise.—< When thinking of pains in various parts

of body.

Restless; does not sleep quietly; wants to be on the move.—Great languor;

wants to lie down.—Tired, bruised, sick feeling in all parts of the body.—Weak and tremulous, as

if recovering from a severe illness —Great weakness, esp. in lower limbs.—Prostration, with

disposition of fluids to decompose.—Indescribable sick feeling all over—Numbness prickling

• ▸and paralytic feeling over the whole body, esp.
• ▸|.
• ▸side.
• ▸—Ulceration of mucous membranes, esp.

of the mouth, with tendency to putrescence.—Discharges and exhalations fetid.—Sensation all

over the body as if bruised or beaten.—Feels as if lying on a board; changes position, bed feels so

hard makes him feel sore and bruised.

• ▸Confused, swimming feeling.
• ▸Vertigo; pressure at root of nose.
• ▸Skin of forehead feels tight; seems drawn to back of head.
• ▸Feels too large, heavy, numb.
• ▸Soreness of eyeballs.
• ▸Brain feels sore.
• ▸Stupor; falls asleep while spoken to.
• ▸Early deafness in typhoid conditions.
• ▸Eyelids heavy.

Vertigo, and weak feeling of entire system, esp. lower limbs and knees.—Vertigo, with

paralysis of eyelids.—Peculiar feeling in head, which is never felt except during fever, excitement

of brain such as precedes delirium.—Dull, heavy pressive headache.—Frontal headache, with

pressure at root of nose; with feeling of fulness and tightness of whole head.—Head feels large

and heavy, with numbness of head and face.—Sharp darts of pain in supraorbital nerve at

• ▸foramen.
• ▸—Frequent sharp pains by spells in r.
• ▸and |.
• ▸temple.
• ▸—Soreness in the brain, worse on

stooping.—Top of head feels as if it would fly off.—Dull, bruised feeling in occiput —Skin of

• ▸forehead feels tight.
• ▸—Scalp feels sore.
• ▸—Sensation as if head swelling.
• ▸—Neck feels so tired she

cannot hold her head easy in any position.

Cannot bear light eyes burn but do not water.—Feeling as if eyes would be pressed into

head eyeballs feel sore, with great confusion of sight; cannot place anything until after looking at

it a few seconds; everything appears to move.—Severe pains in eyes on reading, compelling to

stop.—Bloated feeling of eyes, glistening; disposition to have them half closed.—Eyeballs feel

sore; sore and lame on moving them.—Partial paralysis of lids.

• ▸Dull hearing.
• ▸—Delirium with almost complete deafness.
• ▸—Slight pain in 1.
• ▸parotid

gland.

Dull pain at root of nose; crampy sensation.—Sneezing and feeling as after a severe

cold; slight bleeding from r. nostril of bright red blood, thick.—Epistaxis of dark

• ▸blood.
• ▸—Sensation of fulness; cedema of affected parts, esp.
• ▸in choanze.
• ▸—Illusion of smell: as of

burnt feathers.

• ▸Besotted look.
• ▸Dark red.
• ▸Pain at root of nose.
• ▸Muscles of jaw rigid.

Face flushed, dusky, hot; dark-red, with a besotted expression.—Muscles of jaw rigid.

• ▸Taste flat, bitter.
• ▸Teeth and gums sore, ulcerated.
• ▸Breath fetid. Tongue feels burned; yellowish-brown; edges red and shining.
• ▸Dry and brown in center, with dry and glistening edges; surface cracked and sore.

Can swallow liquids only; least solid food gags.

Sordes on the teeth and lips.—Tongue yellow along the centre; first white, with

reddish papilla, followed by yellow-brown coating in centre, edges dark-red and shining; dry,

brown down the centre; cracked, sore, ulcerated.—Filthy taste with flow of saliva.—Saliva rather

abundant, somewhat viscid, tasting flat.—Numb, pricking sensation in tongue.—Putrid ulcers of

the buccal cavity, with salivation——Mouth and tongue very dry in fevers.—Putrid; offensive;

feecal breath.—Flat, bitter taste in mouth.

Pain and soreness of fauces.—Constrictive feeling in throat, causing frequent efforts

at deglutition.—Throat feels swollen or full—Fauces dark-red; dark, putrid ulcers; tonsils and

parotids swollen; absence of pain, and great prostration.—Difficult deglutition; can only swallow

water; oesophagus feels as if constricted from above down to stomach.

• ▸Dark redness of tonsils and soft palate.
• ▸Constriction, contraction of oesophagus (Cajeput).
• ▸Great difficulty in swallowing solid food.
• ▸Painless sore throat, and offensive discharge.
• ▸Contraction at cardiac orifice.

• ▸Can swallow only liquids, vomiting due to spasm of oesophagus.
• ▸Gastric fever.
• ▸No appetite.
• ▸Constant desire for water.
• ▸Sinking feeling at stomach.
• ▸Pain in epigastric region.
• ▸Feeling of hard substance (Abies nig).
• ▸All symptoms worse from beer (Kali bich).
• ▸Cardiac orifice contracted convulsively and ulcerative inflammation of stomach and bowels.

Sinking, gone feeling at the stomach.—Constant desire for water, with nausea and

want of appetite —Great thirst —Loss of appetite; averse to nourishment and stimulants.—All

symptoms < from beer.—At night, frequent pain in the epigastric region; < from turning over,

• ▸which he had to do all the time.
• ▸—Full feeling in stomach.
• ▸—Heavy gnawing in stomach.
• ▸—Burning

heat rising up to throat.—Pains in stomach; feeling there as of a hard substance.

• ▸Right side markedly affected.
• ▸Distended and rumbling.
• ▸Soreness over region of gall-bladder, with diarrhoea.
• ▸Stools very offensive, thin, dark, bloody.
• ▸Soreness of abdomen, in region of liver.
• ▸Dysentery of old people.

Pain in liver, from r. lateral ligament to gall-bladder; can scarcely walk, it so

augments pain in gall-bladder—Constant severe pain over gall-bladder—Constant pain in

stomach and liver; < walking; hot sensation; heavy aching in liver.—Pain in liver region on going

upstairs.—Constant aching distress in stomach and umbilical region.—Pain in region of spleen,

• ▸with darts of pain in body, esp.
• ▸in carpus, metacarpus, and phalanges.
• ▸—R.
• ▸iliac region

sensitive —Fulness and distension of the abdomen.—Abdominal muscles sore on

pressure.—Sharp, rheumatic pains in groins, lasting a short time but returning after short interval,

< from walking.—Glands of |. groin swollen; painful on walking.

Frequent small, thin, dark, offensive, and acrid stools.—Very fetid,

exhausting diarrhoea; excoriating.—Stool papescent, with large quantities of mucus; no

pain.—Dark-brown mucous and bloody stools, with tenesmus and typhoid tendency.—Dysentery:

rigors, pains in limbs and small of back; stools small, all blood, not very dark but thick;

tenesmus; great prostration, brown tongue, low fever; in autumn or in hot weather, constipation;

severe, with hemorrhoids; in afternoon.—Stricture from piles.

• ▸Stitches in region of r.
• ▸kidney; shooting in |.
• ▸kidney.
• ▸—Burning when

urinating.—Urine rather scanty, dark-red colour; alkaline; fetid.—Light-green urine.

• ▸Threatened miscarriage from mental depression, shock, watching, low fevers.
• ▸Menses too early, too profuse.
• ▸Lochia acrid, fetid.
• ▸Puerperal fever.

Menses too early and too profuse.—Excites abortion.—Lochia

acrid, fetid.—Puerperal fever —Stomatitis materna.

Lungs feel compressed, breathing difficult; seeks open window. Fears going to sleep on account of nightmare and sense of suffocation. Constriction of chest.

Aphonia.—Larynx sore to touch, painful swallowing or

speaking.—Fetid breath —Awakes with great difficulty of breathing; the lungs feel tight and

compressed; must have fresh air.

Constriction and oppression of the chest—Weight and oppression in precordial

region, with a feeling of unsatisfied breathing; afternoon.—Sharp pains in centre of

sternum.—Dull stitches in |. nipple.

Feeling of greatly increased compass and frequency of heart's pulsations;

seem to fill chest—Pulse at first accelerated, afterward slow and faint.

• ▸Neck tired.
• ▸Stiffness and pain, aching and drawing in arms and legs.
• ▸Pain in sacrum, around hips and legs.
• ▸Sore and bruised.
• ▸Decubitus.

Neck tired; sore down neck.—Stiffness and lameness of cervical muscles;

<on moving head.—Back and hips very stiff, ache severely; < walking —Feels as if lying on a

board; changes position often, bed feels so hard; < in region of sacrum.—Dull sacral pain,

compounded of a feeling as from a pressure and fatigue, from long stooping; soon extending

round hips and down r. leg.

Constant twitching in 1. deltoid —Pain in |. shoulder, extending down

• ▸arm.
• ▸—Pains in bones of arms and hands.
• ▸—Numbness of |.
• ▸hand and forearm, with prickling.

Soreness in front of thighs, < after sitting —Limbs weak and vacillating.—L.

foot numb, prickles——Burning of top of r. foot from toes to back of foot.

Livid spots all over body and limbs. Burning and heat in skin (Arsenic). Putrid ulcers with stupor, low delirium and prostration.

Great burning and heat in skin; < in face.—Livid spots over body and limbs.—Eruption

like measles or urticaria —Confluent small-pox, tardy eruption.—Foul, gangrenous, eating

syphilitic sores.

• ▸Sleepless and restless.
• ▸Nightmare and frightful dreams.
• ▸Cannot get herself together, feels scattered about bed.
• ▸Falls asleep while answering a question.

Delirious stupor; falls asleep while answering a question or being talked to.—Sleeps

• ▸well till 2 or 3 a.
• ▸m.
• ▸, then restless till morning.
• ▸—Drowsy, stupid, tired feeling; disposition to half

• ▸close the eyes.
• ▸—Restless, with frightful dreams.
• ▸—Wants to get out of bed.
• ▸—Cannot sleep, limbs

seem scattered about so.

• ▸Chill, with rheumatic pains and soreness all over body.
• ▸Heat all over, with occasional chills.
• ▸Chill about 11 am.
• ▸Adynamic fevers.
• ▸Typhus fever.
• ▸Shipboard fever.

Chilly going into the open air; chills over the back and lower limbs.—Chilly, with

soreness of body.—Whole surface hot and dry, with occasional chills, mostly up and down the

• ▸back.
• ▸—On awaking, 3 a.
• ▸m.
• ▸, flashes of heat; feeling as if sweat would break out.
• ▸—An

uncomfortable burning all over surface, esp. face; moves to cool part of bed; finally rises, opens

window and washes.—Typhoid and cerebral forms of fever—Beginning of typhus when the so-

called nervous symptoms predominate; causes sweat to break out and relieve; typhus; critical

sweat on forehead and face —Fever originating from confinement on shipboard, without good

care or food.—Fetid sweat.

• ▸Abortion, threatened.
• ▸Apoplexy.
• ▸Appendicitis.
• ▸Biliousness.
• ▸Brain softening.
• ▸Cancer.

• ▸Consumption.
• ▸Diphtheria.
• ▸Dysentery.
• ▸Enteric fever.
• ▸Eye, affections of.
• ▸Gall-bladder, affections

• ▸of.
• ▸Gastric fever.
• ▸Headache, bilious.
• ▸Hectic fever.
• ▸Hysteria.
• ▸Influenza.
• ▸Mumps.
• ▸Esophagus,

• ▸stricture of.
• ▸Plague.
• ▸Relapsing fever.
• ▸Sewer gas-poisoning.
• ▸Shivering.
• ▸Stomatitis.
• ▸Tabes

• ▸mesenterica.
• ▸Tinea capitis.
• ▸Tongue ulcerated.
• ▸Typhus.
• ▸Variola.
• ▸Worms.

• ▸Compare: Arn.
• ▸, Arsen.
• ▸, Bry.
• ▸; Gels.
• ▸(malaise, nervousness, flushed face, drowsiness,

• ▸and muscular soreness); Ecchin.
• ▸angust.
• ▸, Hyo.
• ▸, Kali mur.
• ▸, Lach.
• ▸, Mur.
• ▸ac.
• ▸and Nit.
• ▸ac.
• ▸(typhoid);

• ▸Nux v.
• ▸, Op.
• ▸, Rhus t.
• ▸Follows well: Ars.
• ▸is followed well by: Tereb.
• ▸, Nit.
• ▸ac.
• ▸, Ham.
• ▸Silic has, like

Bap., ability to swallow only liquids (like milk), but unlike Bap., Silic has aversion to milk.

Ecchinacea angustifolia is perhaps its nearest analogue.

• ▸Compare: Bryonia and Arsenic may be needed to complete the favorable reaction.
• ▸Ailanthus differs, being more painful.
• ▸Baptisia more painless.
• ▸Rhus; Muriat acid; Arsenic; Bryon; Arnica; Echinac. Pyrogen.

Baptisia confusia (Pain in right jaw and oppression in left hypochondrium, producing dyspnoea and necessity to assume erect position).

Tincture, to twelfth attenuation. Has rather short action.

Baptisia is suitable for acute diseases. It is principally a wshort-acting

medicine, suitable for complaints that are not long lasting. So far as

we know it is not an antipsoric, does not go deep into the life. All of

its acute diseases and complaints have the appearance of zymosis, like

scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid, and gangrenous complaints. There

is one thing that is unusual about it, it brings on this septic state more

rapidly than most other remedies. The zymotic complaints of Ars,,

Phos,, Rhus, and Bry,, are much slower in their pace. But Baptisia is

suitable for typhoids that come on rapidly, and hence it is not so often

suitable in idiopathic typhoids. When an individual comes down suddenly from cold, from malaria, from drinking poisonous waters, and

from any zymotic or septic cause he is hurled into bed in a few days,

instead of going through a period of four, five or six weeks. The old

idiopathic typhoid fevers come on slower. Baptisia is suitable for

those blood poisons that arc highly septic, such as- the puerperal state,

such as scarlet fever. He comes down perhaps with the appearance of

a sudden violent break down, with a remittent fever. But all at once

it turns continued, and takes on septic symptoms. So much for its

progress and its pace. Every medicine must be observed as to its

velocity, as to its pace, as to its periodicity, as to> its motion, and its

wave. We get that by looking at the symptoms. You take an individual who has been down in a mine, in the swamp, down in the mud,

in the sewers, who has inhaled foul gases, who goes into bed with a

• ▸sort of stupor, from the very beginning he feels stupid.
• ▸It is not gradual, but he goes down very suddenly, and he is stupid.
• ▸He is prostrated.
• ▸His face is mottled.
• ▸Sordes begin to appear on the teeth

much earlier than in the regular typhoid. The abdomen becomes distended much earlier than in a regular typhoid ; that is, one who is accustomed to observing those things knows they are postponed for a

number of days ; while with this remedy the third day the abdomen is

distended, his mouth is bleeding, and is putrid. His odors are horrible ; and he is in a marked state of delirium, such as would not be

• ▸expected until the typhoid is out for many days.
• ▸So it has rapid running diseases.
• ▸It has velocity.
• ▸That is, he is going down toward

death rapidly. He is increasing in his prostration more rapidly than

usual. It is not a gradual decline of days and weeks. He goes into

a state of stupor. When aroused he takes on delirium. It does not

matter whether it is scarlet fever, or typhoid fever, or a septic surgical

fever, or a puerperal fever, or what. He has fever, and if you look at

him, and talk to him, and turn him over, and rouse him up, and make

him realize that you want to say something to him — which is difficult —

he gives you the impression that he has been on a big drunk. That is

the first thought you will have in a Baptisia case. His countenance is

besotted. It is bloated and purple and mottled. Blood oozes from the

mouth. You have seen the besotted countenance of drunkards, and it

is like an old drunkard.

His mind seems to be gone. He does not know what he is talking

about. He is in confusion, and when aroused he attempts to say something, and utters a word or two and it all flits away, and he is back in

his state of stupor again. No matter what disease that comes in, no

matter what inflammation is present, no matter what organ is inflammed,

if that slate of the blood that can give rise to such symptoms and such

sepsis is present, if that state of the mind is present, it is Baptista.

All of the discharges are putrid. The odor is cadaverous, pungent ;

penetrating. His perspiration, if he has any, is sour, foetid, pungent,

and penetrating. If he has no sweat the body gives oft an odor that

is unaccountable. The odor is so penetrating that on going into the

front door the whole house, if the room is open, is filled with the odor.

The odor from the stool is putrid and so penetrating that it can be detected on first going into the house.

Now, a strange thing that runs through the remedy is a peculiar

kind of mental confusion, in which he is in a constant argument with

his parts. He seems to feel that there are two of him. He realizes a

dual existence whenever he is roused up. He will begin talking about

BAPtlj^U

^75

the other one in bed with him. It is said clinically that “his great toe

is in controversy with his thumb.” Or, “one leg is talking to the other

leg.” Or, one part is talking to another part ; or, he is scattered around

over the bed ; tumbles and you ask him what he is trying to do — “why,

1 am trying to get those pieces together.” He never succeeds ; he is

in delirium, of course. These are only examples ; you will get a new

• ▸phase every time you get a Baptisia case.
• ▸Most of the time he is unconscious except when roused.
• ▸Sometimes mutters.
• ▸You will see his

lips go, and you rouse him to see what he is about, and he is trying to

get the pieces together. “Confused as if intoxicated.” There are

stages when he is not quite so stupid, and he is sleepless and restless.

That is the exception. Most generally you will hnd him lying upon

one side curled up like a dog, and he does not want to be disturbed.

Again, when the stupor is not so great he is restless and turns and

tosses. In that case he cannot sleep, because he cannot get the pieces

together. He feels if he could once get matters together he could go

to sleep, and these parts that are talking to each other keep him awake.

His mind wanders as soon as his eyes are closed. Dullness, especially

at night. Indisposition to think. Mind seems wx*ak. There you find

the whole picture of the mental aspect in all complaints, in all acute

diseases — ^but they all come on in a hurry. They are zymotic, of a low

form such as scarlet fever, such as malignant diseases ; and yet it takes

on a continued type of fever* These patients will die in from ten to

twelve days if let alone. Whereas, ordinary typhoid will run for

weeks, and sometimes die at |he dose of four weeks in a crisis. The

bleedings arc black and offensive. The putridity is marked. In the

mouth, the mucus from the throat and nose is bloody and putrid. It

has a diarrhoea. Thin, faecal, watery, yellow. It has a typical typhoid

discharge ; the most typical typhoid stool is like yellow corn-meal mush,

coming on many times a day, but soft, pappy, just about the consistency of soft mush. This remedy has that stool, but it is not the commonest form — but the black, the brown, the dark. In treating a good

many cases of typhoid it was my fortune to observe a large number

of Baptisia cases, which the remedy cured promptly. The s^tool where

the Baptisia did the most service was like ground up slate, slate colored, brownish. The odor was penetrating. In addition to that 1

have seen this medicine cure that kind of diarrhoea when it was slate

colored, even thin as water, if it was horribly putrid like decomposed

meat ; like the cadaver, attended with great prostration — I have seen

it cure that diarrhoea when there were none of the elements of typhoid

fever present. A simple prostrating form of diarrhoea. Exhaustion.

Exhaustion comes rapidly. In three days he has a deathly sinking

coming over him.

The headaches are nondescript. Only tliose congestive attacks,

BAPtll^lA

frontal headaches — violent pains in the head, and especially in the

occiput, such as occur in the low forms of disease. I hardly ever go

into the details of headaches, Baptisia is not a headache remedy. It

is, not a remedy that we would single out to treat headaches with, except such violent pains in the head of a congestive character that are

associated with this low form of fever.

• ▸It has characteristic: eye symptoms.
• ▸Congestion.
• ▸Redness.
• ▸Pains

in the eyes, and back of the eyes. So it has with hearing. So it has

with nasal symptoms. But associated with fevers. But as soon as

we come to the face we begin to realize the Baptisia symptoms, that

besotted expression. The countenance shows that. The eyes show it,

the face shows it. And these are the symptoms: ‘‘Dark red with be^

sotted appearance. Hot and perceptibly flushed ; dusky.’' That tells

• ▸the whole story.
• ▸Burning; heat in the face.
• ▸'‘Critical sweat on forehead and face.
• ▸Anxious, frightened look.
• ▸’’ On rousing from sleep

looks as if he had a horrible dream.

And then comes the mouth, and the teeth, and the throat, and the

tongue, all show marked Baptisia features. The tongue is swollen,

• ▸painful, offensive.
• ▸Covered with black blood.
• ▸Raw ; denuded.
• ▸Stiff

and dry as leather. Described as if it was made of wood, or burnt

• ▸leather ; ulcerated.
• ▸Ulceration runs all through the remedy.
• ▸Aphthous patches.
• ▸These little ulcers that start no bigger than a pin-head

become black and are so offensive and run together so that the whole

surface of the mouth will be in a state of ulceration ; raw and denuded,

oozing a thick saliva that is putrid. The throat takes on ulceration ;

is raw and bleeding. There may be diphtheritic exudations in the

throat. But round about it there are those low, dark, offensive surfaces. The throat is greatly swollen, and it is with difficulty that he

can swallow. Baptisia has been a very useful remedy in gangrenous

• ▸sore mouth and sore throat.
• ▸"Cancrum oris.
• ▸” The ulcers spread rapidly and eat rapidly.
• ▸They arc really phagedenic.
• ▸Sordes form rapidly on the teeth.
• ▸And when he is roused from sleep after a few hours

of stupor there is a building up on the lips and around the corners of

the mouth ridges of dry blood ; very offensive. Bleeds much from the

• ▸mouth, throat and nose.
• ▸Thick oozing.
• ▸Putrid.
• ▸“Tongue red, and

dry in the middle. The roof of the mouth swollen and feels numb.

Foul or bitter nauseous taste in the mouth. Tongue of a dark hue.

Tongue dry, brown down the centre. Tongue covered with a thick,

brown crust. Tongue yellowish white, deeply furred/’ Ulcers all

over the mouth. Baptisia has cured the ulcerated sore throat of young

motliers — and nursing sore mouth in children, when the parts become

dusky and ulcers spread, and the mouth is putrid, and prostration

is coming on rapidly. The child or the mother is growing weak with

great rapidity, is becoming prostrated Now, all this without fever.

BAPTlSU

m

Many of these ulcerative states in Baptisia are not attended with fever.

It seems sometimes as though there were not life enough to get up a

fever. Aphthous appearance in typhoid, in children, and with nursing

mothers. Canker sores in the mouth. “Putrid ulceration of the whole

buccal cavity Now, with all tliis trouble saliva pours into the mouth,

is thick and ropy and runs all over the pillow ; like we find in Mercury,

The sore throat may be gangrenous. A strong feature of it is that

the ulcers are rapid and painless, as if numb, without sensation. But

it has a painful sore throat, “f auces dark red ; dark, putrid ulcers ;

tonsils and parotids swollen. Putrid sore throat. Tonsils and soft

palate swollen, not accompanied by pain.'’ Great swelling ; great tumefaction ; purplish. The darker it is the more likely would 1 be to think

of Baptisia — but never a bright red. I have never seen the Baptisia

mental state associated with a bright red appearance. That low form

of mental state is associated with blood decomposition, with duskiness,

with a dark appearance of the skin, and of the mucous membranes.

Not bright red, not pink, as we find in Bdl, Bell is more commonly

• ▸bright red, although it has duskiness, but nothing to the extent of Baplisia.
• ▸There is nothing like the putridity in Bell, that there is in Baptisia.
• ▸“(Esophagus feels as if constricted from above down to stomach.
• ▸” Now, we have another phase of it.
• ▸From the sore throat the

trouble extends into the oesophagus, and the oesophagus is at first in a

state of spasm. I^ater it is piftralyzed. Fluids will at first go down

the throat, but he cannot swallow a particle of solids. The bolus of

food will go into the upper enil of the oesophagus and there it chokes

him and feels like a lump, and he chokes and struggles and gags and

throws it back, and then takes water or fluids. He can swallow fluids

but he cannot swallow solids. Every particle of solid food gags ; but

he can swallow liquids. Natr, mur, and quite a number of other remedies have spasms of the oesophagus coming on with nervous complaints,

but in this low state I know of no other medicine having that one

symptom, having these features, and the paralysis, and the spasmodic

condition of the oesophagus. “The oesophagus feels as if constricted

from above down to the stomach.” Constrictive feeling causing frequent efforts at deglutition ; throat sore, feels constricted. Ckm swal^

low only liquids. Children cannot swallow solids. The smallest solid

substance causes gagging, thus he cannot use anything but milk ; sometimes, thin, watery, offensive passages day and night; associated with

putridity, with the offensiveness, with the duskiness and with the prostration. You need to know no more, if it is diphtheria, or scarlet fever,

if it is typhoid fever, that will lead you to a certain remedy. “Paralysis

of the organs of deglutition.” To draw out from every remedy that

which is positive, to get the associations that make up a particular remedy, and that only is the duty of every clinician.

J&AkYtA dAkeONiCA

The abdomen is distended ; the stomach is distended. may have

these symptoms in inflammation of the liver, when this remedy would

be useful. Along with the diseases that I have mentioned, tympanitic

abdomen. Great soreness in the right iliac fossa ; so sore and tender,

no bigger than a fist ; but all of this putridity, I am sure, would prevent

you from using a knife to cut off that little appendix.

“Foetid, exhausting diarrhoea. Aphthous diarrhoea;’' which means

that the parts of the anus that roll out are ulcerated, little aphthous

patches inside of the margin. “Involuntary diarrhoea." Involuntary

urine and stool in these low forms of disease. “Dark brown, mucous

• ▸and bloody stools.
• ▸Foetid stools.
• ▸" It has dysentery.
• ▸After confinement the lochia stops.
• ▸Great tenderness of the abdomen.
• ▸All these

putrid signs — breaking down of the blood, the appearance of the face,

the sudden prostration, suddenly becoming stupid ; and add to that the

mental symptoms — these are all signs for Baptisia in puerperal fever.

Now, intermingled with this after the case has been running on a few

days the limbs become helpless and tremulous. The tongue when it is

put out is tremulous. The hand when it is raised is tremulous, and tho

• ▸limbs are tremulous.
• ▸Quivering all over the body.
• ▸Prostration increases.
• ▸The jaw drops and he lies upon the back unconscious, with

the mouth wide open. He gradually slides down toward the foot of

the bed. A peculiar sort of paralytic weakness. This is how the prostration increases with the disease ; but even yet when he is as low as

this, with the signs present, Baptisia will break that fever. Baptisia

• ▸will stop the typhoid fever, when it is indicated.
• ▸Prostration and trembling.
• ▸Huddles down in bed, feels as if sinking away.
• ▸Lies in a semiconscious condition when she appears dying.
• ▸Excessive drowsiness.

• ▸Delirious stupor.
• ▸Lies in a semi-comatose state.
• ▸“Discharges and exhalations foetid.
• ▸" Breath, stool, urine, ulcers ; all putrid.
• ▸Ulceration

of mucous membranes.

Wandering pains in all the limbs with dizziness —Drawing pains in arms and legs;

aching in the limbs.