Materia Medica de A a Z

MILLEFOLIUM = ACHILLEA MILLEFOLIUM (mill)

"I do not propose to adopt the usual way by beginning with /Aconite/ and ending with /Zincum/, but to follow the bent of my inclinations, or, as it is sometimes expressed, the movings of the spirit; and may I not here invoke the aid of the spirits of the immortal Hahnemann, Boenninghausen and the galaxy of bright names that adorn the fair page of the history of Homoeopathy to help me."

First: NUX VOMICA (nux-v)

Previus: HELONIAS DIOICA (Helon)

Next: DIGITALIS PURPUREA (Dig)

ERIGERON (Erig); TRILLIUM (Tril); MILLEFOLIUM.

Are three remedies having a reputation for their power to control hæmorrhages.

ERIGERON

Erigeron has cured epistaxis, with congestion to the head, red face [Melilotus (Meli)] and febrile action. Hæmatemesis, with violent retching and burning in the stomach. Bleeding from hæmorrhoids, with burning. Hæmoptysis and blood spitting. Hæmaturia, with stone in the bladder and uterine hæmorrhage. The only marked symptom in addition to the hæmorrhage that should lead to its selection over other remedies of this class, especially in its hæmorrhages from the pelvic organs, is the marked violent irritation of the rectum and bladder. Here we must remember also Cantharis (Canth), Lilium tig (Lil-t) and Nux vomica (Nux-v).

TRILLIUM

From clinical use, seems to be a genuine hæmorrhage remedy. The blood is bright red, whether of the active or passive kind of hæmorrhage. It is especially useful in MENSES EVERY TWO WEEKS, lasting a week and very profuse. Here a choice may have to be made between it and Calcarea ost (Calc) and Nux vomica (Nux-v).

It resembles Chin in flooding, with fainting, dim sight and noises in the ears. Of course, China (Chin) would be the best for the after effects of such a hæmorrhage.

There is sometimes with such flooding a relaxed sensation as if the hips, sacro-synchrondroses and small of back would all fall apart; wants to be bound together. This should doubly indicate it in post-partum hæmorrhage.

It is also especially useful at the climacteric with the above symptoms. It has cured hæmorrhages from other organs, but I have no experience with it there.

MILLEFOLIUM

Is the only one of the three that has seemed to have produced hæmorrhages in its pathogenesis. Hahnemann says of it: "It causes nose-bleed. It causes hæmaturia." Clinical use has verified it.

The blood from the different organs is generally bright red, like that of Aconite. (Acon), but the anxiety of that remedy is not there. In fact, no great fear is present in the cases where I have used it. Sometimes the blood in the urine forms in the bottom of the vessel a bloody cake. When a young man I was troubled for a long time with frequent attacks of profuse epistaxis. Dr. T. L Brown prescribed for me several times, but without success. I became weak from loss of blood. Finally my old grandmother told me to chew yarrow root, and showed me the plant growing in my father's yard. I did so and was quickly cured. While on my vacation at Blue Mountain Lake, in the Adirondacks, I met a man there in the last stage of consumption. He had his medicine from his doctor in New York with him. He was spitting daily large quantities of blood, with severe cough, and his Secale cornutum (Sec) was nor able to control it in the least. He finally said to me: "Doctor, can you do anything to stop this bleeding?" I stooped down (I did not want that patient on my hands) and pulled up a little root of yarrow growing at our feet, handed it to him and told him to chew it. He looked surprised, but did so, liked the taste of it and kept on chewing. It stopped his bleeding and soothed his cough so much that he dug up a basket of yarrow and took it home with him. That controlled the bleeding. He went to Florida for the winter, but died the next spring. It is especially recommended for hæmorrhages after a fall or other injuries. If Arnica (Arn) failed in such a case I would think of Millefolium.