Gallavardin's Clinical Conversations.*

The use of Lycopodium in cases of contortion of the face, convulsions of the sterno-mastoid and other cervical muscles, and also torticollis.

M. Le De Emery has cured five or six persons affected with that kind of contortion which made them involuntarily carry the head on one side.

In the first instance, I shall quote the case of a young priest, about 30 years of age. His head turned itself aside against his will, and even when he performed mass he was obliged to support the head with one hand in order to keep it towards the median line, in its normal position. This affection had obliged him to resign his priesthood, He was cured almost immediately after having taken Lycopodium 30 for eight or ten days; indeed, he appeared astounded, by his rapid recovery as no good result had followed the administration of other remedies previously given.

Dr. Schelling (see 'Hygea,' vol. iv, p. 35) cured with Lycopodium 23 a contraction of the large right posterior muscles of the head in a delicate female of forty years of age. The contraction appeared at first periodically every evening, then it recurred in the morning, and finally became permanent, and at this stage the malady was treated and cured.

The five or six cases of recovery show from practical experience the specific action of Lycopodium on the sterno-mastoid muscles and on the large right posterior muscles of the head. But this medicine exercises a specific action, not only on these but also on the anterior and posterior muscles of the neck in the healthy individual, as is shown by the following pathogenetic symptoms in Dr. Roth's Materia Medica Pura,' vol, iii, p. 428, 430:

1348. Stiffness of one side of the cervical region.

1349. His head involuntarily turns to the left (muscular contraction).

1350. Spasmodic pinching and twitching of both sides of the neck.

1352. Painful trembling in the muscles of the right side of the neck.

1354. Painful stiffness of the muscles of the left side of the

neck.

* From L'Art Médicale, Janvier, 1865. Translated by Dr. Simmons.

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1355. Painful twitching of the muscles of the left side of the neck.

1364. Paralytic weakness of the muscles of the neck; the head always falls forwards with vertigo lasting six hours, but without desire to lie down.

1365. Involuntary shaking of the head, at first slow, then more and more rapid.

1366. Involuntary shaking of the head from right to left. 1367. Involuntary shaking of the head, which occasions ver

tigo.

1368. He turns his head involuntarily forwards and back

wards.

1369. The muscles of the neck contract and relax involun

tarily.

1370. Pain in the nape of the neck on bending the head for

wards.

1371. The nape of the neck seems too short in stooping. 1377. Stiffness of the nape of the neck.

1379. Attempts to bend (the neck) with facility are attended with a painful stiffness of the nape.

1380. Tension of muscles of nape of neck.

1381. Trembling and contraction of the nape of the neck, day and night, reaching to the occiput.

These pathogenetic symptoms show that Lycopodium exercises. a specific action, congestive and convulsive, on the sternomastoid, the anterior muscles of the neck, and muscles of the nape of the neck. According to the law of similars, then, this remedy is indicated:

1st. In contortions of the head produced by tonic or clonic convulsions of one or other of these muscles.

2nd. In torticollis, which most frequently affects one of the sterno-mastoids.

3rd. In that trembling of the head, which is frequently observable in aged people.

4th. In certain cases of chorea affecting the cervical muscles.

The Treatment of Hypopion by Senega and other Medicines.
Treatment of Hypopion and of Glaucoma, by Colchicum.
By DR. EMERY.

Two cases of hypopion, have been recently cured, one with

Senega 3, the other, equally well, with Senega by Dr. Rodolph
Noack, and in both instances the patients were scrofulous.

Senega appeared so efficacious to Dr. Sichel that, in one of his publications on the pathology of ophthalmia, the celebrated oculist considers it the specific for hypopion, particularly in young persons. For this affection he invariably used an infusion of polygala.

Senega is an old traditional remedy in the treatment of hypopion, for in 1777 Murray quotes from Peiffer two cases of hypopion cured by this medicine.

We see, elsewhere, this remedy prescribed for ophthalmia with exudation and suppuration by Dr. Ammon, of Dresden, and against the formation of cataract by Wandt, Hellmuth, Cartheuser and Schmalz.

In attentively reading the pathogenesy of Senega, one can accurately find à priori, after the law of similitude, the indications for this remedy in hypopion. Indeed the ocular symptoms, although all subjective, carry with them a weight, an unmistakeable signification, since ten experimenters have observed similar effects on the eyes, after having taken quantities of the mother tincture of Senega (from one drop to sixty). Then nine experimenters all experienced a pressure in the globe of the eyes (Dr. De Moor's 'Materia Medica Pura,' vol. i, p. 324-326). One of these on looking down felt a pressure in the eyes as if a liquid were infiltrated in the globe and distended it. Another had the appearance of shades before his eyes. In the third the objects appeared dark. Finally, in others, besides the sensation of pressure in the globe of the eyes, there were deceptions of vision, photophobia, or weakness of the sight. Finally, in a tenth experimenter there was a sensation of distension in the eyes as if the globes were too large for their orbits.

This agreement of effects obtained by ten experimenters seems to prove that Senega produces congestive ophthalmia. But if a stronger dose had been taken, and for a greater length of time, might not this medicine have produced the consequences which follow congestion of the eye, to wit, ophthalmia with suppuration, with hypopion ?

This is the point it is difficult to foresee, since the medicine did not produce diseases, but only some symptoms and lesions. Still, it might have been possible to produce actual diseases, had not the provers taken care not to go so far. However, they

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