HYPERICUM [Hyper]:

- M.L.Tyler.

Introduction:
Hypericum-St. John's Wort-thrice blessed herb for the relief of pain: named through the centuries after the beloved disciple; possibly, by analogy, from having been used by him for healing purposes? (One could quote many herbs which had thus acquires their common names). Had the name been merely of ecclesiastical bestowal, it would surely have been St.Luke's Wort, because it was Luke who was "the beloved physician". Among the Wound-worts and Bruise-worts of our land, none rivals Hypericum for its healing touch on injured nerves, and for injuries-especially to parts rich in nerves. Here we use it both externally and internally. One remembers happy hours, roaming the Surrey woods and wastes with a certain herb-woman, whose mother had been maid to a Lady Shrewsbury, a great herbalist, from whom the lore had descended. From this herb-woman one caught the habit of crushing herbs between thumb and fingers, to express and inhale their scents- fragrant or otherwise. According to her, health comes to those who so haunt the woods and taste their sweetness. The woman used to say, "There are two herbs of very kind", i.e. the real (medicinal) herb and its counterfeit, which to the uninitiated, looks curiously like it, but is valueless. But-crush them and see! Crush Hypericum-flowers, stalk or leaves, and you will never forget the curious, almost resinous scent, which persists in the tinctures. Crush the small yellow flowers of St. John's Wort, and to your surprise, dark red smears stain you fingers. These are from glands at the base of the flowers; and because of these the tinctures ("tinctures mine were apt to be called!) are a beautiful red colour. But you will know for certain that you have found our medicinal Hypericum perforatum by holding up its narrow leaves to the light, and observing the pellucid dots with which they are studded. These "holes", together with the "blood- stains", suggested to the ancient searchers after "signatures" the uses of the plant-for wounds, and for punctured wounds. That "Doctrine of Signature!"-one is not supposed to mention it in these materialistic days, because, you see, it is almost as absurd as Homoeopathy. But it was really responsible for the discovery of many common medicines. The idea being, that the Almighty had set His seal on substances and plants useful for healing, so that they might be recognized by His suffering children in their need. One remembers poor old man who used to come and beg a few twigs of Barberry, to cure his "yellow jaunders". How did he se them? Why, it was like this. He scraped off the yellow substance from just beneath the bark, steeped that in beer, and found it a sure cure for his malady. And indeed, most of the liver medicines are yellow-Berberis-Chelidonium, etc., while remedies that affect the blood especially are red-the salts of iron-Hamamelis-Hypericum, etc. However, since the writer of the above is peculiarly sensitive to ridicule, may it be considered unwritten! Among out indigenous wound-worts is the Daisy of the fields, Bellis perennis: of which Culpepper says, "This is another herb which nature has made common, because it may be useful." The Daisy is our English Arnica, and resembles it, even to the production and cure of boils. Yarrow, again, most difficult to get rid of!-Why, it had the impertinence, one year, to ruin the grass outside the National Gallery, right in the hear of London. But it has excuses for its ubiquity. It has been Achillea millefolium since the days when it was used by Achilles (As mentioned in the Iliad) to heal the wounds of his soldiers. Millefolium is a great remedy for bleeding wounds and for haemorrhages. Of course healing in the good old days was largely in the hands of wise women, who had learnt from wise women before them the use of the herbs of field and wood. But that was before the bad new days when a qualified doctor grows every bush, his pockets bulging with aspirin-morphia-carbolic acid-iodine, to oust the simpler, and saner, and more beneficent herbs. For aspirin and morphia only blunt sensation; they never cure the pain which Hypericum does, as we shall see. Culpepper thus describes Hypericum, whose uses he knew so well some 300 years ago. "the plant abides in the ground, shooting anew every spring. The two small leaves set one against the other at every place" (up the stems) "are of a deep green colour, narrow, and full of small holes in every leaf, which cannot be so well perceived as when they are held up to the light. At the tops of the stalks and branches stand yellow flowers of five petals, with many yellow head sin the middle, which being bruised do yield a reddish juice like blood. "It is an excellent vulnerary plant outwardly of great service in bruises, contusions and wounds, especially in the nervous parts. The ointment opens obstructions, dissolves swellings, and closes up the lips of wounds." 28 And Kent gives one of his graphic pictures of Hypericum: "When finger ends or toes have been bruised or lacerated, or a nail torn off, or a nerve pinched between hammer and bone with a blow, and that nerve becomes inflamed, and the pain can be traced extending towards the body with stitching, darting pains, or shooting up towards the body from the seat of injury, a dangerous condition is coming on. Here Hypericum is above all remedies the one to be thought of Lockjaw is threatening." "Or," he says, "A vicious dog will take hold through thumb, or hand, or wrist, and run his teeth through the radial nerve or some of its branches in hand, causing a lacerated wound or a wound may yawn, swell up, no tendency to heal, look dry and shiny on its edges; red, inflamed; burning, stinging, tearing pains; no healing process. That wound needs Hypericum. It prevents tetanus. A shoemaker may stick his awl into the end of his thumb or a carpenter may stick his finger with a brass tack, and he does not think much of it, but the next night shooting pains extend up the arm with great violence. The allopathic physician looks upon that as a serious matter, for he sees lockjaw or tetanus ahead. When these pains come on, Hypericum will stop them, and from the stage to advanced states of tetanus with opisthotonos and lockjaw, Hypericum is the remedy. "Punctured wounds, rat bites, cat bites, etc., are made safe by Ledum, but if the pain shoots from the wound up the nerve of the arm, it is more like Hypericum Injuries to spine Injuries to coccyx Injuries to spine Injuries to coccyx." Kent's Lecture on Hypericum, where he compares it with other such remedies, is a masterpiece. We may reproduce it in part later on. Lockjaw. One of the cases in which Hypericum was curative in lockjaw, is given in Clarke's Dictionary. It was in a boy, bitten in the finger by a tame rat. Some time afterwards he became alarmingly ill: he could with difficulty speak; jaws firmly locked; neck so stiff that it could hardly be moved. Great tenderness about the wound. Hypericum 500th potency in water, was given at 8 p.m., every 15 minutes at first, then every two hours. By 3 a.m. there was improvement and he fell asleep, and next morning was practically convalescent. Now for some homely illustrations in our own ken, briefly told, out showing that Hypericum has not lost its healing power, but that its ancient reputation is well-founded. "For injuries to nerves." In the early days of motor cars, coachman and groom were put under instruction, learning to drive. The groom took his turn at the wheel. The coachman, a big Scotchman, stood up behind and leant over to watch. The groom served badly up on to the side of a hedge, and it presently discovered that the coachman had been jerked out and left far behind on the road. He was in great pain; through careful examination gave it that neither bones, nor joints and suffered. Two or three days later, the pain had become very severe (in spite of Arnica), with both legs powerless to support him, and as he lay in bed, every movement sent shooting pains down both legs to knees and ankles and feet. He cried out repeatedly as he was turned on to his side. There was swelling and tenderness over sacrum and over right sciatic nerve: and, because of the shooting pains, two drops of Hyper. O were given. Three hours later the prescriber met her father as he came in from his ride."I'm frightened about F. We'd better get Dr.-to see him again. We don't want him paralysed!" "Oh, he's all right," was the answer. "I went up to see him, and he's much better. He was up and dressed and walking about." A few more doses of Hypericum O and Hypericum lotion externally, and he got up again that evening and walked the passage with sticks. Next day, went down stairs and across to the stables. Again, next day, was at work without a stick; drove the carriage out, and cleaned it himself. A month later, with the advent of cold weather, there were again shooting pains from sacrum up sides of neck, and shooting pains down both legs, with some numbness and difficulty in lifting feet. Hypericum O and 30th potency improved matters quickly, and in a few days he was all right. This was in 1907, and there has been no recurrence of the trouble. Here Hypericum justified its reputation for "shooting pains extending from the seat of injury". Aspirin or morphia might have given temporary relief of pain. But it was only Hypericum that, in relieving, could cure. Which is scientific?- to numb and dull?-temporarily! or to cure? And there, observe. Arnica is the remedy of injured "soft parts". Hypericum the remedy for injured nerves. "For lacerated wounds." One of the carriage horses had come down on a bad patch of road, and had a beautiful pair of broken knees. The coachman said she was done for: they would heal, but the hair would never grow again as before. There would always be the tell- tale scars. However Hypericum was shaken up with water in a bottle with a spraying arrangement, was shaken up with water in a bottle with a spraying arrangement, and orders were given that the knees were not to be covered, but were to be constantly sprayed. They healed rapidly, leaving nothing to show that the beast had ever come down. This was the cleanest and simplest way one could devise for treating such a patient in the stables. "To close the lips of wounds." A University professor was spending a couple of weeks at our hospital one Christmas time, and one thing he did take away with him was profound respect for the virtues of Hypericum. A girl had fallen through glass, and among other cuts had a nasty one on lip, a little bit of which was missing. Merely a compress of Hypericum that night left the lip healed by morning. "Instead of Arnica, where skin is broken, and where the injury is very painful." A case: He was down for his usual week ending at the harm, and on Saturday morning had climbed down from the dog cart to play with the horses in the filed. They were rather restive today, because a stranger had been turned out with them. Suddenly a young cart horse lashed out and caught him on the outer said of the leg, just below the knee. He fell, and so mercifully escaped a second kick that appeared to the horrified onlooker in the dog-cart, to catch him in the abdomen. He managed to climb back into the high cart, and drove home in very great pain. The skin was broken, so it was no case for Arnica. There was a rush to find St. John's Wort in a certain hedge; to pour boiling water on the her; and to apply it to the injury. The pain went by magic. He was nearly 80, and there was very little tissue between skin and bone, and healing ought to have been difficult and protracted;l but it was all healed by Monday, wen he returned to work in London, albeit limping. One gauged the severity of the injury from the discoloration that gradually spread, like a huge bruise, up the thigh;- the hurt having been below the knee. "For abscesses." During the war, a girl was sent to Hospital by a local doctor, with an abscess in the palm of hand, outer side, very tense and painful. He had incised it, but getting no pus, had sent her for further operation. She arrived in the morning, and merely got Hypericum internally and a compress of Hypericum for the whole hand. When seen in the afternoon, the pain was gone, the tension was gone, and it was pouring with pus. It rapidly healed. Is this what Culpepper means when he says, "it opens obstructions and dissolves swellings". It dissolved that one! A certain theatre's carpenter was about to let off a gun for theatrical effect when it accidentally went off with his hand on the top of the barrel-consequence, the wad was embedded in his palm. He attended a hospital, week after week, where they did what they brought needful, and alternately soaked the wound, and then sent him away with a dry dressing. The man was suffering miserably and enduring sleepless nights of pain. Then someone sent him to see what the homoeopaths could do for him. He got Silica internally, and a compress of Hypericum, with instant relief of pain, and restored sleep. Then, in a few days, the discharging wound began to smell so foully that a tentative compress of Lysol was applied; but as this did not give relief, Hypericum was again used. Then, in a few days, when squeezing out pus, out came a burst of stinking wad, and next day another scrap, and then it healed beautifully. But one tendon had either sloughed, or been shot away, and a finger remains out of control-a memento of the time when he so nearly lost his band. A keen lay homoeopath, long since dead, sent Hypericum to the Scotch sergeants at the Front. He published the following in the Oban Times of May 1st, 1915, and had it reprinted as a leaflet. HYPERICUM ON THE BATTLEFIELD, LETTER FROM A HIGHLAND SERGEANT Mr. Campbell of Barbreck has received the following letter:- British Expeditionary Force, April 19th, 1915. DEAR MR. CAMPBELL.- I want to thank you for the box of splendid pellets you so kindly sent me. I would have written you long ago on this subject, but I wanted to test them thoroughly before I gave my opinion on them, and now I can state facts which must be very satisfactory to you. The result of my observation is this: About a week after I got your letter and pellets one of my Platoon was wounded by sniper while he was on lookout in the trenches; the wound was a bad one, through the shoulder, and he was suffering a lot with it. All the colour left his face, and I thought he was going to faint. I thought of the pellets which I had in my haversack, and I decided to give him two of them. The effect of them I am sure I need not tell you, but it surprised me beyond words. To see a man badly wounded and in terrible pain to be transformed to laugh and joke, and lark with the men, by two little pellets is something wonderful. This is only one case out of many which I could tell you about, and although I hope I shall never require them myself, I am pleased to have them to give to others. I think I have said enough this time, but I will let you know about other cases later. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, SERGEANT W.M. ---------------- Certified a true copy. J.A.CAMPBELL, Barbreck, Craignish. April 23rd, 1915. In the provings of Hypericum one finds nerve pains-stitching pains-and paralytic symptoms. Hering in his Guiding Symptoms gives cases of cure by Hypericum of-Concussion of spine: man thrown from wagon who struck has back-violently against a kerb stone and had shooting pains down both legs, with partial paralysis. Boy with traumatic meningitis after a fall on the head. Woman with headache after a fall on occiput, with sensation of being lifted high into the air; tormented by the greatest anxiety that the slightest touch or motion would make her fall down from this height; and so on. There are just a few persons very sensitive to Hypericum. One of these, the wife of one of our doctors, had a curious experience with Hypericum which, after producing symptoms, cured. They were visiting the Battlefields after the war, when a piece of barbed wire penetrated her stocking, and made a rather deep puncture, with a large deep scratch on the skin. The wound was dressed and healed up. Some time later it began to give acute pain at irregular intervals. The pain was severe-in the injured part. A number or remedies were tried, but nothing held. Then, because of the acuteness of the pain, as if the injury were fresh-inflicted, Hypericum 30 was given which she proceeded to "prove". In two hours there was faintness, paleness of face, she felt as if heart would stop: nausea; legs trembled, couldn't walk, had to hold on to something. Exhausted, weak and faint. Had to lie down. This condition lasted till late evening. Appetite gone for two days. and the doctor concludes:- "Since she got the Hypericum 30 she has never had pain or ache in the part again. No remedy had been given for a couple of months before the Hypericum, and nothing after it." Another little known use of Hypericum is for PILES. Clarke (Dictionary) quotes "Roehrig", who "considers Hypericum externally and internally, the nearest thing to a specific for bleeding piles." It works! and should work: because Hypericum is the remedy, par excellence, for parts rich in nerves-of which the anus is assuredly one! And in the provings it markedly affected the rectum. Besides Hypericum perforatum, there are other varieties with medicinal properties. One of these has the same."Tutsan" (all heal). Then the beautiful large-flowered variety, which clothes the railway embankments near Leatherhead. Some one used to send up a big packet of these flowers every year to the Hospital, and good old Sister Olive used to stir them over a fire in oil, to make a healing ointment for sores. ED.
BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS.
Consequences of spinal concussion. Effects of nervous shock. Tetanus after traumatic injuries. Injuries to nerves, attended by great pain. Punctured, incised, contused or lacerated wounds, when pains are extremely severe, and particularly if they are of long duration; pains like those of a severe toothache; pains spread to neighbouring parts and extend up limb. Punctured wounds feel very sore; from treading on nails, needles, pins, splinter, rat bites, etc.: prevents lockjaw. Consequences of spinal concussion. Piercing wounds; from sharp instruments.

Comments

  1. Nerve pinched in left leg, please suggest homeopathic remedy.

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    Replies
    1. Helo Kiran if you submit only single symptoms I can suggest you HYPERICUM 200, just 2 pills and wait for one week. If you write more symptoms I can study your case to select constitutional remedy for you.

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