Generals: In Belladonna we approach a colossal drug, gigantic, impetuous, terrible, and striking directly at the ego of man, the brain; not a slow-moving, ponderously irresistible force such as Calcarea, Silica, Sulphur, which often take their own good time in altering the microcosmos, but a force that sweeps on to victory or death with the delirious scream, the throbbing pulse, the wide eyes that see redly, and the sudden agony of a battle charge. Such is Belladonna when roused to full fury.

However, the drug would not be numbered among the great homœopathic polychrests, each of which is a volume in therapeutica, were its strenuosity the only side of its character. Belladonna is useful in varying conditions, and silence and apparent calm may mark the sufferer, but, a fundamental element in a Belladonna prescription will always be: congestion; characteristically, cerebral congestion.

Teste, who grouped drugs systematically, places in the Belladonna Group as analogues:

Agaricus, Lachesis, Cedron, Stramonium, Opium, Arnica, Clematis, Ruta, Tabacum, Aurum, Camphor, Cannabis Indica, Hyoscyamus, Bryonia, attributing to these drugs a special action upon the brain, or cortex. He remarks of Belladonna: "Its power upon the organism is exactly proportionate to the degree of development and functional activity of the cerebrum." In accord with this law, herbivora and birds are least affected by Belladonna (pigeons not at all.) Idiots are practically immune to its effects.

Belladonna, in contrast to Aconite which acts directly upon the circulatory apparatus, affects first the nervous and then, indirectly, the vascular system, its action being centrifugal. Of the nerve centres the highest or brain, cortex, bulb, meninges, medulla are first involved; then the lower centres and the great sympathetic. Thus we find Belladonna pains proceeding from above downwards; in Gelsemium and Silica the pains travel up the cerebro-spinal axis. It congests and irritates neural tissue and exhibits the phenomena of disordered function; its neuritis, for example, is due not to a structural change in the nerve tissue but to an inflammatory irritation

Belladonna relaxes, physiologically, all sphincters, e.g., the iris sphincters, paralyzing the endings of the third nerve, thus allowing the iris to dilate and destroying the power of accommodation.

It is rapid in action, forming one of the quintet, Aconite, Belladonna, Cuprum, Nux vomica, Zincum, which act quickly when indicated.

A characteristic toxic syndrome, which sketches roughly its homœopathic range is: "a dry mouth and fauces; difficult deglutition; constrictive spasms of mouth and fauces; mydriasis; loss of accommodation with obscured vision, optical illusions (phantasms), suffused eyes; ringing in the ears; numbness of the face; vertigo, delirium, scarlet eruption, sopor." Hempel.

It is suited to robust, plethoric, somewhat phlegmatic individuals, inclined to obesity, of a Falstaffian temperament, of a candid, open character and good cerebral development, who, when sick, are suddenly and exceedingly sick, the acute cerebral hyperemia being the irritable response of a vigorous nature to the disease (or drug) stimulus.

Calcarea carbonica is the chronic of Belladonna; often completes its action; and should be studied when Belladonna, though indicated, fails. Belladonna is the acute antidote, Calcarea carbonica the chronic antidote of Lachesis.

Atropine, the alkaloid, has more neural action than Belladonna. A hypodermic of Atropine antidotes the physiologic effect of opium, morphine, hydrocyanic acid.

Belladonna is a right-sided remedy, but only characteristically so in subacute or chronic complaints, e.g., a recurrent right ovaritis or a recurrent right-sided angina with other Bella

donna symptoms. In acute cases it is suitable to complaints (with Belladonna features) on either side of the body.

As Ferrum phosphoricum is frequently useful in cases much like Aconite but with the Aconite mentality, unrest, fear absent, so it is efficacious in syndromes much like Belladonna without the suddenness, extreme violence, rapid hard full pulse, and the primary cerebral congestion peculiar to Belladonna.

Its relation to other remedies may be grouped: ninghausen)

Mind.

(Boen

HYOSCYAMUS.-Lycopodium, Opium, Stramonium, Vera

trum album.

Parts of Body and Organs.

CALCAREA, PULSATILLA, SULPHUR.-Bryonia, Hyoscyamus, Lycopodium, Nux vomica, Phosphorus, Sepia, Silica.

Sensations and Complaints. General and Particular. CALCAREA, NUX VOMICA, PULSATILLA, SEPIA, SULPHUR.Bryonia, Hyoscyamus, Lycopodium, Mercurius, Rhus.

Glandular.

LYCOPODIUM, MERCURIUS, PHOSPHORUS.-Arnica, Bryonia, Pulsatilla, Sulphur.

Bones.

MERCURIUS. Calcarea, Pulsatilla.

Skin.

MERCURIUS, PULSATILLA, RHUS.-Arsenicum, Lycopodium, Sepia, Sulphur.

Sleep and Dreams.

PULSATILLA.-Hepar, Phosphorus, Sepia, Silica, Sulphur.

Fever.

ACONITE, NUX VOMICA, PULSATILLA.-Arsenic, Bryonia, Hyoscyamus, Mercurius, Rhus, Sulphur.

Modalites and Circumstances.

BRYONIA, PULSATILLA, SEPIA.-Calcarea, Chamomilla, Hyoscyamus, Nux vomica, Rhus, Sulphur.

Concordances.

PULSATILLA.-Bryonia, Calcarea, Hyoscyamus, Lycopodium, Mercurius, Phosphorus, Rhus, Sepia, Sulphur.

Fever: Belladonna is indicated in any fever, catarrhal or infectious (in typhoid with Belladonna symptoms, consider

Stramonium. Kent.) where the indications are:-Elevated temperature with evening rise; moist skin or skin so hot that it seems to burn the examining hand; great thirst; red face or alternately red and pale; headache, delirium. The head may be hot, the body and limbs cold (Arnica.) The temperature is high, commonly hot all the time, - no intercalated chills or chilliness. There may be congestion of blood to single parts.

Sleep: Insomnia with drowsiness; cerebral congestion. The higher potencies when the brain is overcharged with blood or actively congested; the lower when it is overpowered by the intensity of blood-pressure, iris widely dilated and convulsions threatened.

Skin: Eruptions of boils and pimples surrounded by a red areola, no suppuration.

Diffused, scarlet redness, burning and itching, restless, dilated iris, jerking of the head, worse from touch.

Humid eruptions, with burning, shooting pains on touching them.

Prophylactic and curative in scarlatina but only in the smooth, shiny Sydenham type. Hence its rejection by the old school as prophylactic, simply because of an inability to differentiate drugs. According to them Belladonna is either prophylactic or not prophylactic in scarlet fever,"any old kind.” The therapy which differentiates between an Ailanthus, Apis, Arsenicum, Arum triphyllum, Belladonna, Bryonia, Cantharis, Crotalus horridus, Lachesis or Rhus scarlatina is past their comprehension.

Mind: There may be marked dullness, or delirum with dullness, or a merry, jocose delirium.

Active delirium, worse after sleep, with drowsiness. Thirst for small quantities of water often. Starts up suddenly; desires to get out of bed or into another bed.

Everything appears too large (Platina; everything else than her own haughty self appears too small.)

Children (or adults,) who when sick, have a disposition to knock the head against things, "to dash their brains out."

Head and Face: Vertigo with luminous vibrations before the eyes, especially when stooping or bending; with vanishing of sight and a tendency to fall leftwards or backwards.

Epileptic vertigo from rush of blood to the bead, with hot red face, buzzing in the ears, dim vision, loss of consciousness, worse in a warm room, better in the open air.

Pains sudden in coming and going but last indefinitely; often with stupefaction and vertigo; redness and swelling of the face; worse from light, noise, jar, contact; of catarrhal, gastric or rheumatic origin, especially in lymphatic subjects, cerebral congestion.

Congestive throbbing headache, better by semi-recumbent posture (Sanguinaria, better lying down.)

Facial erysipelas, the parts being red, hot, and hard.

Eye: At the beginning of inflammation, with dryness of the eyes, feeling of dryness and weight in the swollen lids; photophobia; headache; red face.

Eyes red, injected, ecchymosed.
Diplopia; sees objects inverted.

Acute strabismus with cerebral congestion (Lilium tig.) Ear: Acute suppurative otitis with sticking in and behind the ear; pains boring, digging, tearing, often coming and going suddenly and extending to the throat, with ringing, buzzing, roaring. Membrana tympani congested but not changed in position. Whole head hot and pulsating, face red, photophobia.

Sudden severe earache in children, with red face and restlessness (30th. Cf. Pulsatilla.)

Nose: Coryza from getting the hair cut.

Teeth: Dentition; hot head, red tongue, gums inflamed, cold extremities; may have watery, mucous stools, sometimes greenish; on going to sleep the child "starts," throwing up its hands as if falling.

Throat: Dryness of the throat, viscid saliva, difficult deglutition (even with diseases not seated in this region.)

Superficial soreness, throat bright red, dry, swollen; feeling of lump or constriction in the throat; painful swallowing, especially of liquids; cervical glands tender and swollen. Swallowing often causes lachrymation and closing of the eyes. Digestive tract: Craving for lemons, characteristic of Belladonna, which agree.

Tongue white with red edges and papillæ.

Violent spasmodic contractions in the esophagus (Belladonna, Cicuta, Ignatia) with expulsion of food; difficult and painful deglutition as if the parts were too narrow; every attempt to swallow renews the spasm; face flushed; iris dilated.

Especially indicated in troubles of the hypogastrium; clutching, griping pains, peritoneal involvement, great sensitiveness.