Senega Anhang

 

A sad and irritable state with much anxiety, which can alternate with affection, playfulness and hilarity.

[J.T. Kent]

Old lung tonic, and probably 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.

Chest: Especially a chest medicine: 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 the air passages, its chief use has been in chest complaints, asthmatic complaints, in various forms of dyspnoea, cardiac and asthmatic. There are violent pains in the chest (like pleurisy). Also symptoms like pneumonia (pleuro-pneumonia/pleuro-pneumonia of cattle found its specific

in Seneg. 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 Bry., often finds its remedy in Senega = a sort of cross between Bry. (violent symptoms  yet < from rest, unlike Bryonia) and Rhus-t. (> like Rhus-t., > motion, pain < when at rest).

Pain (chest/rheumatic/inflammatory) < during rest, cough < motion (asthmatic troubles < slightest motion). Cannot walk up hill/not walk against the wind, because it brings on chest symptoms and dyspnoea.

DD.: Ant-t.: The rattling in the chest marked as in Ant-t.

Kali-b.: Mucous tenacious/copious and as gluey and stringy, so much is this the case that he can get it only part way up, and with a spasmodic effort he swallows it, like Spong.: and Caust.

Seneg. has deep action, and is as well an acute remedy. It is filled with sharp and acute sufferings, sufferings that come on with rapidity, from taking cold, or from a cold

that involves the whole chest.

Eyes: There are some eye symptoms in the text that are worthy of attention.

"Paralysis of the muscles of the eyes."

"Iritis and specks upon the cornea."

"Paresis of the superior oblique."

"Aching over the orbits."

"Eyes pain as if pressed out."

"Blepharitis."

It has cured opacity of the vitreous humor.

Larynx: 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."

Dry 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.

Mouth: 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 pharynx 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 greatest 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-bi. Lach. and Merc-c., entirely overlooking the usefulness of Senega.

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 does 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 (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 Ant-t. Pyrog. Kali-bi. etc., but this remedy is just as suitable (a great amount of dryness in the throat and larynx, dryness in the throat during sleep and on waking, and inability to expectorate the tough ropy mucus).

"Shaking cough," i. 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."

Leading remedy 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 mucus in chest and flying pains in chest-"

It has sometimes cured pleuro-pneumonia when there was the extreme exhaustion of Phos. and Ars. In such cases Senega has caused reaction; it has such weakness

(advanced phthisis, when those symptoms are present).

It acts as a palliative. It does excellent patch work without serious aggravations, relates more especially to superficial conditions. It is not as deep acting as Sulph. and Sil.

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 Ars. 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 Seneg. or Bry. 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 < during rest/inspiring. Stitching in the chest when lying on the right side. Great soreness in the walls of the chest. Pain under right scapula when coughing. Pain > walking in the open air

[W.H. Burt]

Selects especially the mucous lining of the respiratory organs, producing catarrhal inflammation, with copious discharge of mucus.

Therapeutics:

Head: Pressure or tearing in temples or forhead. Violent beating headache, with pressure in the eyes.

Eyes: Pressure or burning. Secretion of hard tenacious mucus in the canthi. Diplopia and Flickering.

Chest: Violent rush of blood. Violent aching pain in the chest. Tightness and oppression of the chest as if forcibly compressed.

Shortness of breath from accumulation of mucus in the chest and trachea. Rattling of mucus which seems to fill the chest.

(Hydrothorax and pleuritic effusion; oedema of lungs. Chronic Bronchitis with emphysema and bronchiectasis).

Violent boring pain in the region of the heart. Hard pulse.

 

DD.: Bryonia.

            Ant-t.: Kent: Rattling in chest

Kali-bi.: Mucus like Kali-bi.

 

[Vera Resnick]

Senega symptoms using Boenninghausen’s Therapeutic Pocketbook and Synopsis Software. She also discovers Senega’s relationship to other remedies.

There are often remedies which show up in repertorization which we overlook – remedies which we aren’t familiar with, have never used and are just not part of our prescribing “vocabulary”.

For me, Senega is such a remedy. I have not yet prescribed it, but I do see it showing up on occasion in repertorization.

Polygala Senega, or snake root is of North American origin.

From Wikipedia:

This plant had many uses among Native Americans. The Cherokee used it as an expectorant and a diuretic, and for inflammation, croup, and common cold.

The Chippewa used preparations of the root to treat convulsions and bleeding wounds.

The Cree chewed the root for sore throat and toothache.

The Seneca: According to Canadian botanist Frčre Marie-Victorin, may have been inspired to use the tortuous root to treat snakebite by its resemblance to the tail

of a rattlesnake. It’s still in use for treatment of pneumonia.

Proved by Massie in 1803. More detailed results of the proving can be found, among other sources, in Hughes’ Cyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesy.

Following are some examples from the proving:

    Dr. MASSIE took 10 dr. of gum dissolved in water.In 5 minutesthere was a sensation in esophagus as if the membrane had been abraded, lasted 1 hour.

Pulse, 84 before experiment, at 15 minutes was 78, 20 minutes 73, 30 minutes 70, 35 minutes 68, thence gradually rising to 76.

He then took 20 gr.: Irritation in esophagus was again felt, with some nausea; the drug also operated slightly as a purgative. (Inaug. Thesis, Penns. Univ., 1803; from ALLEN.)

    Mr. L. took 20 gr. of powdered root. In 10 minutes burning sensation in esophagus with considerable discharge of mucus from trachea (still continuing in slight degree 1 1/2 hour later).Pulse, 65 before experiment, in 10 minutes was 70 and fuller; later 72, whence it fell again. (Ibid.)

    Mr. L – took same.Had similar feeling in esophagus, with much hawking of mucus.In 30 minutes nausea, which increased up to 40 minutes.Pulse, 65 before experiment, gradually rose in 5 – 40 minutes up to 90, and was still 80 – 86 after 1 – 2 hours.

In 11/2 hour skin became very hot; in 1 3/4 hour profuse perspiration set in, and disagreeable symptoms were quite removed. (Ibid.)

    Mr. W. took same. Same irritation in esophagus; pulse, 68, was 80 at 30 – 40 minutes, and only returned to its starting-point in 21/2 hours (Ibid.) So what does Senega look like in Boenninghausen’s Therapeutic Pocketbook? And why do this kind of review?

One of the greatest problems we have in homoeopathy is lack of certainty about the information available to us.  We don’t always know which are the proving symptoms and which are clinical, or whether the proving was done exactly according to Hahnemann’s instructions -i.e. reliable- or not.  Doing this kind of review through other repertories may well give us a fractured jumble of many similar rubrics with two or three remedies in each, where the remedy we’re looking at features in some and not in others. 

Certain information about what remedies can do is the lifeblood of homoeopathic work, and without it, our prescribing is resting on very thin ice.

All the rubrics in the TPB and the symptoms in each rubric are the result of Boenninghausen’s extensive sifting and categorizing of information.  Anything I find on Senega,

or any other remedy where a proving may be less accessible, I can be certain comes from either primary proving sources, Boenninghausen’s own clinical experience or the experience of clinicians he trusted.  This significantly ramps up the importance of such a review in getting a reliable picture of what Senega can do.

A brief note about grading in the TPB: remedies appearing in three or four points for a symptom, are those where the symptom appeared in proving and was frequently observed to be relevant in clinical use of the remedy.  Remedies in one or two points are those which were noted in provings.  The clinical experience referred to was

primarily that of Boenninghausen himself and of Hahnemann.

Senega appears in four points in the following rubrics. However, it takes its place among many other remedies, and does not appear in four points in any rubric with less than 50 remedies.

The number immediately after each rubric is the rubric number in the P&W Synopsis software facsimile of the original 1846 edition of Boenninghausen’sTPB, the number in the square brackets indicates the number of remedies in the rubric.

What about rubrics with less remedies? Senega is prominent in the following, and appears in three points:

So far this gives us a picture of a remedy state where the patient has a tendency to dryness, lack of perspiration and to an increased production of mucus in the larynx and trachea. There is very clear aggravation from mortification in this remedy state, and also relaxation of the body (pathological) and very deep sleep.

Appearance in three points in “Mortification” Seneg. Cham. Ph-ac. with Coloc. Ign. Nat-m. and Staph.

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what can be learned about a remedy through searching through the repertory. I did one last search, to see where Senega appeared in any grade, in rubrics with 10 remedies or less, and got the following result:

 

Senega’s only partner in the symptom: > Chewing is Bryonia. Its only partner in the symptom of Imaginary Odors resembling Pus: Sulph.

 

In the concordance symptoms and in this last search, for the most part Senega appears in one point, indicating that Boenninghausen did not have much clinical experience

with the remedy for these symptoms. However, its appearance in the TPB means it has definite significance in such cases, where it matches the totality of the disease state.

 

 

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