Zizia

[The old name should be retained, especially as botanists differ in opinions whether it should now be Thapsium (Gray), or Carum (Bentham and Hooker).]

Carum aureum, Bentham and Hooker.

Thapsium aureum, Nutt. (Smyrnium aureum, Linn; Zizia aurea, Koch).

Natural order , Umbelliferæ.

Common name , Meadow parsnips.

Preparation , Tincture of the root.

Authorities. (E. E. Marcy, M.D., North Am. Journ., vol. iv, 1855, p. 52).

1 , Judge Gray says a gentleman chewed a piece of the root; 2 , same, relates the case of a young lady who ate a large root; 3 , Dr. Marcy, in a case of epilepsy the patient took more than the prescribed dose; 4 , Marcy himself took 5 drops 3d dil. every four hours, until some effects were produced, also two other gentlemen and one lady took the same dilution, and Dr. O. Fullgraff took 1st dil. and tincture; 5 , Under inspection of M. E. Lazarus, M.D., Miss J. L., in her twenty-third year, has suffered in years past from dyspepsia, difficulties of kidneys, and from asthma, during two years past chiefly from occasional paroxysms of nervous and sick headache, with pains between shoulderblades, and disorders of uterine function, without serious organic change or displacement; at each inhalation 4 drops 3d dil. were added to 4 tablespoonfuls of water, and inhaled four times a day for six days, for ten minutes each time; during a proving of four days the symptoms were like those she had often observed, but they all appeared in increased severity in the second proving; the actual state of health at time of beginning the second proving was good.

MIND

• Unusual exhilaration of spirits, 3.
• Exhilaration like intoxication (from the first dilution), 4.
• Exhilaration of all the faculties, followed by a strong desire to sleep, 4.
• Sense of exhilaration, lasting twelve hours, and then succeeded by great depression, which lasted for several days, 4.
• Laughing and weeping moods in alternation, 4.
• Depression of spirits, with disgust of life, 4.
• Depression of spirits, followed by great exhilaration and desire for conversation, 4.
• Irritability, with lowness of spirits and indifference to everything, 4.
• Nervous irritability and depression of spirits, which increase throughout the proving, and on the sixth evening culminate in a paroxysm of self-dissatisfaction, with weeping (after one day), 5. [10.]
• Indolence, with contentment (first day), 5.
• Dreamy, imaginative mood, 4.
• The behavior throughout is quiet, with much apparent suffering and sadness, 5.

HEAD

• Giddiness, 4.
• Swimming in the head, 4 ; (first day), 5.
• Lightness and pain in the head, 3.
• Rush of blood to the head and face, with feeling of fulness, 4.
• Affections of the brain and nervous system, 4.
• Sensation of tightness around the head, 4.
• Headache sharp over the right eye, begins slightly on the second day and increases until the eighth. Pulsatilla 6°, which promptly relieves it on the third day, acts but feebly on the seventh. In its full development on the seventh day the headache is grievous, with nausea, inclination to bilious vomiting, need to lie still in a darkened and quiet room; light, noise, and jar aggravate; differs from the usual type only in the pain being permanent on the right side, instead of shifting. It abates twenty-four hours after discontinuing the inhalations, leaving much sensitiveness, a bitter taste in the mouth, and a susceptible and feeble stomach for several days longer. While inhaling the headache was worse in the evening; after stopping the inhalations its aggravations occurred in the morning, in accordance with the constitutional predisposition. When at its worst the pain descends behind the right ear into the neck; it leaves the lips parched as from fever. It is consociated with severe backache, between or at the borders of the shoulderblades; the forehead is affected by a sharp cutting pain by the jar of coughing; on the ninth day after the cough pain had ceased in the chest, 5 . [This group is suspected to the be sympathetic with the uterine, yet not wholly so, as there is a hereditary predisposition to headache, from the father's side, from which only two members of a large family are exempt). [20.]
• Sensations of tightness around the forehead and at the back of the head, 4.
• Severe pain in the right temple, with nausea, 4.
• Pressure upon the top of the brain, 4.
• Acute aching pain in the whole left side of the head, increased by light or noise, 4.
• Dull pains in the occipital region, extending down the muscles of the neck, 4.

EYE

• Redness of both eyes, 4.
• While both eyes exhibit a diffused injection, the right eye is more particularly the seat of painful and quite unaccustomed symptoms, 5.
• Shooting pains through the orbits, 4.
• Sharp pains in the right orbit, increased by moving the balls, by stooping or stepping, 4.
• Eyelids adhere together on rising, in the morning, in consequence of a yellowish, mucopurulent secretion, 4. [30.]
• Stye upon the right lid, 4.
• A stye developed in the middle of the upper lid, and gave so much pain on the fourth day that she sought relief from an antidote, Carbo animalis; four doses at hour intervals relieved promptly, and in twenty-four hours the stye had vanished; still the right eye continues burning, smarting, and weeping, and both eyes continue on the fifth day after stopping the inhalation very weak and painful if they are used at night, 5.
• Smarting of the lids, 4.
• Eyes watery, 4.
• Eyes sensitive to light, 4.

NOSE

• Nasal catarrh, with sneezing and coughing, from the first inhalation, 5.
• Nasal discharge of thick mucus, 5.
• Catarrhal asthmatic, and pleuritic maladies, 4.
• Obstruction and soreness of the right nostril, which is painful to touch, 4.
• The right nostril only is affected, it becomes sore and tender to the external touch; consociated with this was observed a diffused injection of the mucous membrane covering the arches of the pharynx, with the ordinary sensations of catarrhal sore throat; the conjunctival membrane exhibited a similar diffused injection, 5.

FACE. [40.]

• Face pale and puffy, 4.
• The face exhibits throughout the proving a pale puffy state, quite morbid, 5.
• Redness of one cheek and paleness of the other, 4.
• Boring pains in the cheek-bones, 4.
• Dull pains in the jaws, 4.
• Painful tenderness over the lower jaw-bone, an inch below the root of the ear, observed only on the seventh day, 5.

MOUTH

• Redness of the tongue, with unusual sensitiveness to cold and warm drinks, 4.
• Tongue covered with a whitish fur, 4.
• Yellow fur upon the tongue, and oppressed respiration, 4.
• The tongue was broad, furred in the middle and reddened at the tip and sides, 5. [50.]
• Dryness of the mouth, 4.
• Bitter taste, 4.
• After the sick headache there was a bitter bilious taste in the mouth (seventh day), 5.

THROAT

• Increased secretion of mucus in the throat, 4.
• Slight redness of the tonsils and palate, with soreness of the throat, 4.
• Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the pharynx, 4.

STOMACH

• Appetite and Thirst.
• Craving for acids and stimulants, 4.
• Loss of appetite, 4.
• The appetite diminished as the drug illness became more and more serious, 5.
• Thirst, 4. [60.]
• Thirst increased, 5.
• Nausea and Vomiting.
• Nausea, 4.
• Nausea and vomiting, immediately, 1.
• Acid and bilious vomiting, 4.
• Violent vomiting, soon; the speedy discharge of the poison by vomiting enabled her to resist the toxical influence and regain her usual health in a few days, 2.
• Stomach.
• Stomach sensitive to touch, 4.
• Pressure occasioning nausea and faintness, 4.

SEXUAL ORGANS

• Male.
• Involuntary emission for two nights in succession, while taking the drug, 4.
• Excitement of the male genital organs, 4.
• In one instance, where great lassitude and prostration had long been habitual after connection, the drug appeared to effect an entire change for the better, 4. [70.]
• Sexual power enhanced, 4.
• Female.
• Uterine affections characterized by increased vascular and nervous excitement, 4.
• Bland and profuse leucorrhœa, 4.
• Acrid leucorrhœa, 4.
• *Leucorrhœa commences on the second day and continues, slight as to quantity, and at first acrid; afterwards more bland and copious; this is a constitutional disorder, and was observed during both provings; it ceased on the seventh day, 5.
• Profuse menstrual discharge for one day, followed by an acrid leucorrhœa, 4.
• The catamenia appeared in due time, but ceased after only twelve hours; this is altogether unusual with the prover, 5.
• Sudden suppression of the menses, 4.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS

• Larynx and Trachea.
• Roughness in the upper portion of the larynx when inspiring or coughing, 4.
• Raw and smarting sensation in the larynx from coughing, 4. [80.]
• Sensitiveness of the trachea to touch, 4.
• Cough and Expectoration.
• Dry cough, with shooting pains in the chest, 4.
• Tight cough caused by taking a deep inspiration, 4.
• Tight cough, excited by dryness of the larynx, 4.
• Short, dry cough, attended with severe stitching pains in the right side, and a sense of suffocation, 4.
• The cough is hard, dry, and short, with stitching pain on the right side, from the region beneath the sixth rib down as far as two inches below the xiphoid cartilage, 4, 5.
• Respiration.
• Respiration accelerated and oppressed, 4.
• Oppressed respiration and yellow fur upon the tongue, 4.
• Asthmatic respiration, with inability to retain the recumbent position, 4.
• She cannot draw a full breath, without severe pain, in the latter days of the proving from the fourth day; worst on the seventh, and sensible on the tenth; it catches her about the sixth rib in front, and pierces through to the back, like the other pains, confined to the right side, 5. [90.]
• Asthmatic group, not very severe or remarkable by other persons, but recognized by the prover as a reproduction of symptoms which have been latent for years. It is now six years since the critical acme and sudden disappearance of a chronic asthma. Since then she remembers only one short attack, about two years ago, merely a fit of half an hour. After each inhalation she felt almost stifled for about ten minutes, although the inhalation itself was made easily and freely.

This annoyance augments as the proving proceeds , and becomes more constant , though less severe, since discontinuing the inhalations . It is still felt on the thirteenth day, although faintly. Its seat is central, beneath the sternum on a line with the axillæ. There is no audible wheezing, yet the same sensations in the chest as during her former fits of asthma; sometimes so serious as to keep her up for hours at night, 5.

CHEST

• The pleural symptoms are severe, painful, regularly developed from the first inhalations, reach their acme on the seventh day, and are still very troublesome on this, the tenth, 5.
• Bruised feeling in the muscles of the chest, 4.
• Pressure excites pain in the intercostal muscles, 4.
• Over the xiphoid cartilage and at circumscribed spots on each side about the size of a fifty-cent piece, two inches below, there is painful tenderness to the external touch, 5.
• Dull, aching pains under the right scapula, 4.
• Severe shooting pain, extending from the front part of the thorax to the scapula, 4.
• Sharp pains, extending from the sides of the chest to both shoulder-blades, 4.
• Severe stitching pains in the chest, accompanied by feverish symptoms, 4.
• Pleuritic stitches in the right side, much increased by coughing, or taking or attempting to take a long breath, 4.

BACK. [100.]

• The dorsal symptoms are painful, perhaps sympathetic with the uterine sphere; they begin to be felt on the second day of the proving, increase in severity until the seventh evening, and are still felt on the thirteenth day. They are ordinary with her at any time when her vitality is depressed, as by prolonged nervous headaches or other causes; she has no reason to expect them from any such cause before commencing the Zizia proving. Their seat is at the posterior lateral margins of the scapula, generally worst on the left side; during the inhalations it was the right side which chiefly suffered; since leaving off it is the left. The pains are aching, smarting, and stinging, when worst there is also aching in the small of the back, 5.
• Dull pains in the loins, increased by movement, 4.
• Smarting-burning pain in the small of the back, 4.

SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES

• Lameness in the muscles of both arms, from the shoulders to the elbows.
• Pricking sensation in the right arm, with slight diminished sensibility of the part, 4.

INFERIOR EXTREMITIES

• Dragging sensation in both hips, 4.
• Unusually tired feeling of the legs, after the slightest muscular exertion, 4.

GENERALITIES

• Increased physical strength, with inclination for muscular exertion, 3.
• The general aspect and sensations of the prover were those of a grave and chronic deterioration of health, 5.
• White and puffy appearance of the whole body, 4. [110.]
• Surface of the whole body paler than natural, 4.
• Face and ankles œdematous, 4.
• Convulsions, epilepsy, 4.
• Spasms, swooning, and convulsions, 2.
• Spasms, general convulsions, and fainting fits, immediately, which terminated in death at the expiration of three hours, 1.
• Spasmodic movements of the muscles of the face and extremities, 4.
• Great desire to move about, with apparent increase of strength, but slight exercise causes fatigue, 4.
• Sensitiveness of the entire surface of the body to the touch, 4.
• The pains of Zizia have been fixed; those to which the prover is at other times subject are oftener shifting, 5.
• Pains increased by movement, noise, light, or contact, 4. [120.]
• Most of the functional disturbances persist after ceasing the inhalations, and very generally abate during fifteen days, 5.
• The exacerbation assumed the evening type. The morning is, on the contrary, the time at which the prover's constitutional disorders are generally most severe, 5.

SKIN

• Itching pimples upon the forehead, wrists, and legs, 4.

SLEEP

• Drowsiness, 4 ; (first day), 5.
• Drowsiness, with a sense of lassitude and fatigue, 4.
• The sleep is sound until the sixth night, when it is prevented by pains, 4, 5.
• Spasmodic twitching during sleep, 4.
• Talking during sleep, 4.
• Sleep disturbed by unpleasant dreams, 4.

FEVER

• Chilliness.
• Chilliness and heat, alternating with faintness, nausea, pain in the right temple, redness of the eyeballs, dry and red tongue, and thirst for cold water, 4. [130.]
• Chilliness, accompanied with spasmodic twitchings of the muscles of the face and upper extremities, followed by fever, 4.
• Heat.
• Fever, with headache, pain in the back, thirst, 4.
• Feverish symptoms, accompanying severe stitching pains in the chest, 4.
• Severe sense of heat and fulness in both cheeks, 4.
• Flushed cheeks, hot head, visible pulsations of the carotid and temporal arteries, coldness of the hands and feet, drowsiness and irritability, 4.
• Redness and heat of the cheeks (after 1 drop of 3d dil.), 4.
• Hot flushes in the face and head, followed by perspiration, 4.

CONDITIONS

• ( Evening ), Headache; symptoms.
• ( Coughing ), Pleuritic stitches in right side.
• ( Deep breath ), Pleuritic stitches in right side.
• ( Light ), Pain in left side of head; pains.
• ( Motion ), Pain in loins; pains.
• ( Moving eyes ), Pain in right orbit.
• ( Stepping ), Pain in right orbit.
• ( Stooping ), Pain in right orbit.