Gentiana Lutea

This unproved Gentian has a great popular reputation in Ohio and other parts

of the United States as an antiperiodic and tonic. Hale quotes Yelvington of Susquehanna (who

says he learned its value from a tribe of Indians) as saying "he has succeeded in obstinate

intermittents where Quinine and other anti-periodics had failed. He used the decoction of the

herb. A fluid extract or the saturated tincture is a better form for administration in fever. It is a

valuable tonic for old cases of dyspepsia and torpid liver." It is a pleasant bitter, and appears to

be, like the other Gentians, a positive tonic. Dr. Yelvington also used it in cases of infantile fever

and cholera infantum. "As a tonic in enfeebled patients and in chronic diseases," he says, "it is a

remedy par excellence, appearing to exert an action over the organs of nutrition and assimilation,

as well as being a stimulant to the excretory organs."

• ▸Vertigo, worse, rising or motion; better open air.
• ▸Frontal headache, better eating and open air.
• ▸Brain feels loose, head tender.
• ▸Aching in eyes.

Head confused and dull while writing, or else with tension and pressure in the

forehead.—Bewilderment and heat in the head, and heat in the cheeks.—Cloudiness, as after

taking spirituous liquors.—Sensation of vertigo in the head.—Sensation of vacuity and

bewilderment in the head, with dull pressure, from within outwardly, at the forehead.—Pressure:

at the occiput; in the forehead, sometimes, simultaneously, in the eyes.—Full, as if

enlarged.—Head feels as after intoxication.—Fulness and dull pressure, from above downwards,

in the frontal region, like a violent pulsative cephalalgia—Lancinations in the frontal region.

Pressure in eyeballs.—Frequent aching in the eyes; sensitiveness and pain in the eyes,

followed by lancinations in the upper eyelid —Redness of the conjunctiva.—Obscuration of the

sight for some moments, so that objects immediately before the eyes cannot be distinguished;

could not see the person with whom he was talking for a few moments.

Irritation in nose, as in coryza, followed by a watery discharge.

8, 9. Mouth and Throat.—Dryness of the mouth and throat; saliva thicker than usual; roughness

of the throat.—Taste intensely bitter—Swelling, fine sticking in throat, mostly in posterior

portion of palate-——Frequent hawking of mucus which is difficult to loosen.—Rawness in

throat.—Earthy taste.

Dry. Thick saliva.

• ▸Acid risings, ravenous hunger, nausea, weight and aching in stomach.
• ▸Inflation and tension of stomach and abdomen (Pothos).
• ▸Colic, umbilical region sensitive to touch.
• ▸Flatulence.

Risings, sometimes with borborygmi in the abdomen.—Acid risings, like vinegar,

with hiccough; nausea, almost to vomiting, with watering of the eye; inclination to vomit,

sometimes with uneasiness, yawning and slight vertigo, or else with tears which flow from the

• ▸eyes.
• ▸—Vomiting in weak subjects.
• ▸—Sensation of emptiness in the stomach.
• ▸—Ravenous hunger in

evening.—Diminished appetite —Nausea after simplest meal.—Aching, sometimes anxious, or

else with tightness, or with nausea and inclination to vomit, followed by pressure at the

anus.—Weight and aching at the stomach, with anguish, nausea, inclination to vomit, and

respiration full and impeded.—Inflation and tension in the abdomen and in the stomach.—Feeling

of constriction in the stomach.

Uneasiness and pressure in |. hypochondrium.—Colic, with aching in region of

stomach, and urgency to go to stool.—Painful sensitiveness of the whole abdomen, with tightness

• ▸in the lower region, esp.
• ▸in r.
• ▸side and posteriorly, with pressure.
• ▸—Umbilical region, sensitive to

touch, with pressive pain.—Steady pressure in umbilicus like an inward drawing.—Pains, esp.

below the navel, and principally when the part is touched.—On walking quickly, pain in the

lower part of the abdomen, with pressure on the anus.—Aching in umbilical region, sometimes

with tension.—Cutting pains, sometimes on awaking, at night, with beat and quickened

respiration.—Cutting pains, from the pubic region to the colon transversum, from the touch, with

painful sensitiveness of the abdomen; when lying on the back, with the legs retracted, the pains

are more supportable.—Fixed drawing pain in the umbilical region, with heaviness and fulness of

the head, and stoppage of the nose.—Inflation and tension of the abdomen, sometimes with

heaviness and fulness, or else with painful sensitiveness to the touch.—Tightness of lower part of

abdomen, < towards the evening, with shortness of breath.—Borborygmi in the abdomen, or else

gurgling, as of bubbles which ascend.—Continual emission of wind above and below, without

relief.—Painful and general sensitiveness of the teguments of the abdomen.

Urgent inclination to evacuate, sometimes sudden, with abundant stools,

followed by painful sensitiveness of the abdomen; pressure on the anus while wanting to go to

• ▸stool.
• ▸—Dragging towards anus with tenesmus.
• ▸—Sudden urging with copious evacuation.
• ▸—Soft

stools, immediately after rising.—Bilious diarrhoea (in afternoon).—Stool soft, yellow, preceded

by colicky pains, which become so severe after the stool that they force the patient to bend

double.

Hoarseness of the voice.—Frequent hawking without power to detach

the mucus from the throat.

Oppression of the chest; fulness in the chest, sometimes with pressure and difficulty

of respiration.—Pressure on |. side near the throat.

Pain in the back and bowels, much< by motion, > by sitting.—Sensation of a cord, or

pressure and weight round the loins.

Rheumatic tension and dragging in the r. hand, with inflammatory redness of

two articulations of the fingers, spasmodic symptoms, and pain of the part during

movement.—(Gout in r. hand).

Aching in the hips (and the loins), sometimes, esp. on leaning forward to

look out of the window.—Tingling in the knees.—Pain, as of dislocation, in 1.

articulation —Lancinations and tearing pains in the sole of 1. foot, when walking.

Yawning.—Inclination to sleep, without power to go to sleep; sleep retarded; sleep

impeded by colic, which obliges the patient to turn in bed, sometimes on one side and sometimes

on the other, and which does not permit the least repose until two o'clock in the

morning.—Uneasy sleep disturbed by abdominal symptoms and fever.

Febrile shuddering, as from electric shocks, commencing at the back and traversing

the posterior part of the body, followed by lassitude, depression, and tension in the

limbs.—Increase of natural heat over head, cheeks, and whole body.—Heat originating in the

lumbar vertebrze.—Pulse accelerated.

Gentiana Quinqueflora.

• ▸Five-flowered Gentian.
• ▸Gall of the Earth.
• ▸N.
• ▸O.
• ▸Gentianaceé¢.
• ▸Decoction of the herb.

Tincture of fresh plant in flower (September, October).

Compare: Gentiana quinque flora (intermittent fever; dyspepsia, cholera infantum, weakness); Gentiana cruciata (throat symptoms in addition to similar stomach symptoms; dysphagia; vertigo with headache; pressing inward sensation in eyes; constricted throat and head and abdomen. Distention, fullness and tightness in abdomen. Creeping over body as from fleas). Hydrast; Nux.

First to third attenuation.