Senega

Suddenly remembers unimportant regions which he saw long ago. Inclined to quarrel.

Anxious, apprehensive, timorous; great sadness towards evening, with repugnance to

conversation, and compression of ideas.—(She is happier when leucorrhcea is <, and vice

versda.).—Weakness of memory, with difficulty in finding words to express his thoughts.

Great fatigue; for several days symptoms more violent when seated than when

walking; they cease while walking, and reappear on sitting down.

Dullness, with pressure and weakness of eyes. Pain in temples. Bursting pain in forehead.

Confusion in head, with unfitness for labour; sometimes with inclination to sleep, or

dulness of head.—Heaviness in head, as in sultry weather; or else frequent, alternating from time

to time with great clearness of thought.—Headache, in morning, on awakening, which disappears

• ▸on rising.
• ▸—Pain in occiput, sometimes very acute.
• ▸—Pain in |.
• ▸temple—Aching pain in forehead,

or in forehead and r. temple, cramp-like squeezing at back of head, requiring the hand to be

placed upon it, or the head to be thrown back, which > the pain.

• ▸Hyperphoria, better by bending head backwards.
• ▸Acts on the rectus superior.
• ▸Blepharitis; lids dry and crusty (Graph).
• ▸Dryness, with sensation as if too large for orbits.
• ▸Starting.
• ▸Lachrymation.
• ▸Flickering; must wipe eyes frequently.
• ▸Objects look shaded.
• ▸Muscular asthenopia (Caust).
• ▸Double vision; better only by bending head backward.
• ▸Opacities of the vitreous humor.
• ▸Promotes absorption of fragments of lens, after operation.

Cramp-like squeezing behind ears.—Noise in ears, with aggravation of heaviness of

head.

Dry. Coryza; much watery mucus and sneezing. Nostrils feel peppery.

Paralysis of left side of face. Heat in face. Burning vesicles in corners of mouth and lips.

Catarrhal inflammation of throat and fauces, with scraping hoarseness. Burning and rawness. Sensation as if membrane had been abraded.

Hunger, sometimes in morning only, and unfelt during a meal.—Awful hunger

• ▸and emptiness, even after a meal.
• ▸—Tensive pain in r.
• ▸hypochondrium.
• ▸—Colic, sharp pain, as from

a cutting blow in I. side of hypogastrium, which continues painful throughout evening.

Difficult evacuations; constipation, during more than five days.—Pressure

in anus, like painful lancinations.—Sensation of heavy weight pressing on rectum; swelling of

heemorrhoids.—During stool: bloody leucorrhcea; discharge of pure blood by vulva.

Frequent want to urinate during day; at night, with emission of colourless

urine.—Fetid urine, almost like valerian, with a white sediment, and discharge of a small quantity

of mucus after urination.—Slight discharge of blood when making water.

Greatly diminished; loaded with shreds and mucus; scalding before and after urinating. Back, bursting distending pain in kidney region.

Extreme irritation of genital parts, with ardent sexual desire to a

degree almost maniacal; slightest touch reawakens desire.—Sensation of dryness, and of

constriction in uterus; pulsation; incisive pain, as if caused by cutting instruments.—Violent pains

• ▸in r.
• ▸side, crossing abdomen to |.
• ▸breast.
• ▸—Violent lancination in |.
• ▸side, in evening.
• ▸—Distinct

feeling of womb.—Burning, shooting, and stitching pains in cervix.—Knife-thrusts in uterus as if

• ▸os were cut.
• ▸—Stitches on I.
• ▸side of uterus from below upward.
• ▸—Feeling as if something pressing

on a sore spot in pelvis, r. side of uterus, going into abdomen to thorax.—Violent bearing down

with symptoms of prolapse, > by crossing legs.—Sensation of weight and of expansion in labia

majora.—Sensation of weight in vagina during the abdominal pains.—Menstruation too

• ▸profuse.
• ▸—Hzemorrhages.
• ▸—Expels large coagula.
• ▸—During the profuse menstruation, sensation of

constriction at uterus.—Leucorrhcea: serous; greenish; thick; becoming sanguineous;

reappearance of sanguineous leucorrhcea while at stool.—Violent pains, acute lancinations in

breasts —During pregnancy: leucorrhcea; sensation of pelvic bones getting loose.

• ▸Hoarseness.
• ▸Hurts to talk.
• ▸Bursting pain in back on coughing.
• ▸Catarrh of larynx.
• ▸Loss of voice.
• ▸Hacking cough.
• ▸Thorax feels too narrow.
• ▸Cough often ends in a sneeze. Rattling in chest (Tart emet).
• ▸Chest oppressed on ascending.
• ▸Bronchial catarrh, with sore chest walls; much mucus; sensation of oppression and weight of chest.
• ▸Difficult raising of tough, profuse mucus, in the aged.
• ▸Asthenic bronchitis of old people with chronic interstitial nephritis or chronic emphysema.
• ▸Old asthmatics with congestive attacks.
• ▸Exudations in Pleura.
• ▸Hydrothorax (Merc sulph).
• ▸Pressure on chest as though lungs were forced back to spine.
• ▸Voice unsteady, vocal cords partially paralyzed.

Voice changed, hoarse.—Cough: in morning while fasting; dry, hard,

with oppression of chest.

Wheezing in chest, when breathing, in evening.—Pain in chest, as if it had been

• ▸bruised.
• ▸—Lancinating and burning pains below false ribs on |.
• ▸side, towards back.
• ▸—Sensation as

of a snake creeping over entire region of short ribs.

Lumbago, sometimes burning, and with pain like excoriation.—On extending the

• ▸body, esp.
• ▸in bed, pain in hips and lumbar region.
• ▸—Pains in pelvic region.
• ▸—Sensation as if bones

of pelvis getting loose.

Great weakness and fatigue in legs, which sometimes fail and compel

• ▸patient to seat himself.
• ▸—Intolerable creeping pain in r.
• ▸hip.
• ▸—In thighs: violent contusive pain;

burning heat in forepart; acute pain, in forepart, on raising body, which renders contact with

anything insupportable; sensation of throbbing in forepart of thighs.

Drowsiness, sometimes with sadness.—Urgent inclination to sleep, towards 9

• ▸p.
• ▸m.
• ▸—Sleep interrupted by pains, like those of catamenia.
• ▸—Awakening with fright, with urgent

want to make water, and abundant emission.—Distressing dreams, from which patient sometimes

awakens with a start.

Compare: Caust; Phos; Saponin; Ammon; Calc; Nepeta cataria-Catnip (to break up a cold; infantile colic: hysteria).

Tincture, to thirtieth potency.

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. This remedy 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.

Senega is more especially a chest medicine. It is full of chest symptoms, and its relation to the air passages makes it worthy of consideration, although many of the individualizing symptoms have not yet been

brought out. From its most striking action on the mucous membrane

of. thd ait passages, ats chie£ use h^> been in ^hest complaints,, asthmatic

complaints, in various forms of dyspnoea, cardiac and asthmatic.

There arc 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, often finds its remedy in Senega. Senega is a sort of

cross between Bryonia and Rhus tox. The violent symptoms are those

of Bryonia, yet it is worse from rest, unlike Bryonia. The symptoms

of Senega are not so much like Rhus tox., but it has an amelioration

like that of 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 tartancum

the tenacious mucus is as copious, as gluey and stringy as in Kali bichromicum, so much is this the case that he can get it only part way

up, and with a spasmodic effort he shallows it, like Spongia and Causticuni. Senega is a remedy of dc<|>i; action, as well as an acute remedy. It is filled with shar|> and acu^ Sufferings, sufferings that come

on with rapidity, from taking cold, or from a cold that involves the

whole chest.

There are some eye symptoms in the text that are worthy of attention. ‘Taralysis of the muscles of the eyes.*' “Iritis and specks upon

the cornea.” ‘Taresis of the superior oblique.” ^'Aching over the

• ▸orbits.
• ▸” “Eyes pain as if pressed out.
• ▸” “Blepharitis.
• ▸” It has cured

opacity of the vitreous humor.

Of the larynx the text says, ‘'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 copper. A very little of this medicine in proving will produce such a dryness and metallic taste in the mouth, and

such a tickling at the root of the tongue, the pharmx and larynx, and

it will finally end in a copious, thick, gluey discharge. “Grippe, with

stitches in right eye when coughing.” “Laryngeal phthisis.” “Copious accumulation of tough mucus in air-tubes, which Causes the great-

8a8

est, often ineffectual, efforts at coughing and hawking for its expulsion/' This thick, tough mucus will lead most routine prescribers to

give such medicines as Kali bichromicum, Lachesis and Mercurius cot^

rosivuSy 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 docs 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 and Rumex, Those two remedies cause a cough,

which commences when he first goes into the air. Senega has another

feature like 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 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 Antirnonium tartaricurri, Pyrogen, Kali bichromicum, etc., but this remedy 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,” 2. 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 naucus in chest and flying pains

in chest.”

It has sometimes cured pleuro-pneumonia when there was the extreme exhaustion of Phosphorus and 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 and Silicca.

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 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 will help

him ; if he is sore and feels as if bruised and he most move from

side to side 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 worle during rest and on inspiring.

Stitching pains in the chest when Iyii% on the right side. Great soreness in the walls of the chest. Palp* under right scapula when coughing. The chest pains are better while walking in the open air