Homoeopathic provings : containing the Vienna provings of colocynth and thuja-occidentalis, and the symptoms of aethusa-cynapium, alcohol-sulphuris, amphisbaena-vermicularis, anagallis-arvensis, apis-mellifica, aristolochia-milhomens, arsenicum-metallicum, artemesia-vulgaris, asterias-rubens, cinnabaris, turpethum, coccus-cacti : being the appendix to the North American homoeopathic journal / edited by James W. Metcalf.

Metcalf, James W.

Date:: 1853

Credit: Homoeopathic provings : containing the Vienna provings of colocynth and thuja-occidentalis, and the symptoms of aethusa-cynapium, alcohol-sulphuris, amphisbaena-vermicularis, anagallis-arvensis, apis-mellifica, aristolochia-milhomens, arsenicum-metallicum, artemesia-vulgaris, asterias-rubens, cinnabaris, turpethum, coccus-cacti : being the appendix to the North American homoeopathic journal / edited by James W. Metcalf. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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In the Cynosura Materice Medico? Pauli Herrmanni, which was continued by Bocclerus (editio II., Argentorati, 1*747, p. 565) the fol- lowing virtues are ascribeed to Thuja : Folia (thujce) resolvunt, ex- siccant, flatus pellunt, et sudorem dent. Parkinsonus folia tenera et cruda cum butyro pani illito comesta ad tenaces et viscidos humores expectorandos nonnullis in usu esse scribit. Krunitz (Encyklop. B. 66) gives the following extended version of this passage (probably from the first edition of Herrmann's Cynosura) : The leaves disperse, dry, expel flatulence, and bring out sweat. The wood is cleansing, it is good for the head, excites sweat, resists poison, and is good in infirmities of the eyes and ears, either in the shape of a powder or decoction. Krunitz must have been staggered by the unbounded praise which Herrmann bestows upon Thuja, for he adds: I dare not relate all the marvellous things which Herrmann tells of Thuja. According to Boerhaave the water which has been distilled from the branches of Thuja is useful in swellings; according to others, a decoction of the cones is useful in fever and ague. According to Halm, the natives of America prepare an ointment from the crushed leaves, and rub the limbs with it when they are affected with pain. These few quotations, which' might be increased, are sufficient to show, that, previous to Hahnemann, scarce anything was known of the curative virtues of Thuja, and that the supposed remedial proper- ties above mentioned were merely hypothetical notions. The Thuja occidentalis has never been used as an officinal drug by the physicians of the Old School, nor is it mentioned in the common works on pharmacology, not even in Vogt's pharmacodynamics. It is therefore the original and exclusive property of the new school, a pearl of price for which we are indebted to Hahnemann. CHAPTER III. (1.) Hahnemann*s Proving of the Aebor vit^e on the healthy. The great medical reformer proved Thuja on himself and on ten of his pupils. He gives us 330 symptoms,* which he had observed partly on himself and partly on others among his immediate followers, and some of which he had gathered from the sick. He had no assist- ance from previous authors, as there was nothing known of the action of-Thuja before his time, and he conducted its proving with zeal and perseverance. The symptoms collected by him present the character- istic features of Thuja in the clearest manner. We give below the results of Hahnemann's proving, with the omis- sion of the characterless, bracketed symptoms, and of those obtained * R. A. M. L., 2 Aufl., B. 5, S. 125.

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