Belladonna or the deadly nightshade was known to the medical world as early as 1500 A.D. The Venetians named the plant ” HERB A BELLA DONNA,” from the circumstance that the ladies used it in distilled water as a cosmetic. The plant, especially the leaves, yields the well-known Atropine, as well as Asparagine, and also lime and other alkaline substances. The root too contains Atropine, although in variable proportions. Belladonna is intensely poisonous to man, though herbivorous animals may eat it with impunity.

Studied as a poison Belladonna causes the following symptoms : Eyes dry and injected; face red, turgid, and hot; skin scarlet or studded with papillae, all but identical with those in scarlatina; violent congestions, especially to the head; mouth and throat distressingly dry ; this last sensation extends downwards, compelling frequent swallowing, and suifocative spasms of fauces and glottis. Thirst is violent, yet water aggravates; vertigo, confusion, hallucination, and finally stupor. The pupils are so much dilated as to nearly obscure the iris. Jactitation of the muscles; convulsions. Such poisoning cases are not uncommon in Europe, where the plant is native, and where its berries have been mistaken for cherries. In this country, too, it has been accidentally taken, and employed also in attempts at suicide. To antidote it, use the stomach pump, emetics of hot mustard water, and strong coffee without milk or sugar.

Belladonna as a homeopathic remedy is almost as old as the art itself. Our symptomatology from provings and poisoning cases enables us to employ the drug with mathematical certainty, so far as its selection is concerned. But like all polychrests, it is abused by hurried and careless practitioners, and so is often given when its resemblances to the cases under treatment are quite superficial and partial.

Belladonna has so often come up in the preceding lectures of this course in comparing it with other drugs that you are already somewhat familiar with it. For this reason many of the symptoms of the drug may be passed over in hurried review. But first of all let me tell you something of the general character of Belladonna. It seems to be best suited to persons of a plethoric habit who are subject to congestions, especially to the head more than to any other part of the body, who are rather fleshy and phlegmatic, something akin to CALCAREA OSTREARUM, without the pallor of that remedy. They are pleasant and jolly enough when well, but they become exceedingly irritable and overbearing when sick. This pleasant sociability which seems to make them so companionable, seems to be converted into the opposite condition when they are afflicted by illness. Belladonna, when it is to be used for children, demands that there must be some cerebral symptoms present. There must be some irritation of the brain, as shown by jerking of the limbs, irritability making the child fret, or absolute meningeal inflammation.

The character of the diseases in which Belladonna is indicated is acute, sudden and violent. The very rapidity of the onset of the trouble should at once suggest Belladonna. For example, a child is perfectly well on going to bed. A few hours afterwards it is aroused with violent symptoms, jerking of the limbs, irritation of the brain, and screaming out during sleep. All these symptoms suggest Belladonna.

So too in inflammations, if they are violent and come suddenly, and are almost overwhelming in their intensity, Belladonna is again suggested. We may think of it in abscess, whether this be an abscess of the tonsil, a boil, or any other kind of abscess when pus develops with lightning-like rapidity. Hence we find it indicated in phlegmonous erysipelas, which quickly goes on to suppuration. The affected parts become greatly swollen. Pus works its way through the tissues between the various muscles. The very suddenness of the attack suggests Belladonna, The pains are quite consistent with this character of the drug. They come suddenly and last a greater or less length of time, and then cease as suddenly as they began. So much for the general character of Belladonna.

The action of Belladonna on the brain must be understood before we can proceed farther. It does not seem to me, reviewing the symptoms of the drug, that Belladonna causes so much a positive inflammation of the meninges as it does develop the collateral symptoms of the inflammation. Thus ACONITE causes an absolute inflammation of the meninges with an increase of exudation; then again, BRYONIA causes an inflammation, with an exudation of leucocytes and blood plasma, constituting complete inflammation. Belladonna seems rather to provoke congestion. The surcharged bloodvessels seem to have ruptured, and have produced little reddish spots or ecchymoses in the tissues, exciting thus a congestive irritation of the brain beneath the membrane. What exudation does follow this congestive irritation is that of serum, and is just the kind of exudation that always results from venous congestion. It is not the inflammatory exudation, rich in plasma, which is pictured under BRYONIA, APIS, and SULPHUR, but NOT under Belladonna. Still Belladonna produces so many collateral symptoms of cerebral irritation, that we find its use indispensable in this condition. What are the particular symptoms which indicate it? They are these : Congestion of the head. This may in its milder form consist of a simple feeling of heat about the head, the feet being cold. At other times and in more violent forms we find the face red and the whites of the eyes somewhat injected. The patient complains of a severe throbbing headache. He may be either drowsy or very wakeful. Frequently these latter symptoms alternate, that is, at times the patient is drowsy and falls into a heavy slumber, and is aroused from this startled, crying out, or giving some evidence of cerebral irritation, such as jerking of the limbs and twitching of individual muscles, and, as this form of irritation advances, we find the eyes red, the whites of the eyes looking almost like raw beef. The carotid arteries, throb so violently that their pulsations are visible to the unaided eye. This congestion proceeds to an inflammatory irritation. We find intense throbbing in the head, with sharp shooting pains, making the patient scream or cringe, so violent are they. These pains come almost like a flash, and disappear as suddenly as they came. At first the patient cannot sleep. He is in this unfortunate predicament, he is sleepy, yet he cannot sleep. As the symptoms advance, especially in children, there is boring of the head into the pillows, the head is thrown backwards and there is rolling of the head from side to side. Some squint is noticed. The pupils are dilated. There is grinding of the teeth. The face is now bright red or else the congestion is so violent as to make it almost purple. If the patient is a child whose fontanelle has not yet closed, you can feel it tense and bulging up above the convexity of the skull, and throbbing and thumping with each pulsation of the heart. Convulsions often ensue, particularly in children, and these convulsions are very violent, distorting the body in every conceivable manner, opisthotonos predominating. The urine is either scanty or suppressed. Now the various symptoms, subjective and objective, which belong to this condition are these : First, there is jerking in sleep, or even when awake. On closing his eyes the patient is very apt to see abnormal visions. These usually disappear on opening the eyes. At other times he has a sensation as though he was falling. Thus the patient, if a child, suddenly arouses from sleep, clutches at the air, and trembles as if from fear. Sometimes this symptom is owing to dreams, at other times to severe pain in the head, which, by its severity, alarms the child and awakens it, and at still others, to this sensation, as if it were falling.

Sometimes we find the patients with this cerebral irritation lying in a stupor. They can scarcely be aroused, and when aroused they are always violent, tossing about, striking those near them, tearing their clothes, all evidences of excitement, which, if not actually due to inflammation, approach to that condition.

In inflammation of the brain or its membranes Belladonna must give place to other drugs when exudation takes place, whether there be a simple or a tubercular meningitis present. There is very little relation between Belladonna and tubercular meningitis. Tubercular meningitis is slow in its course. Thus we have suggested at once SULPHUR, CALCAREA, APIS, and deeper and slower acting remedies than Belladonna. Then again, when exudation has taken place, as indicated by the persistence of this rolling of the head and sudden shrieking, we know that we must resort to other remedies, principally to APIS. BRYONIA, too, often comes in after Belladonna, when the face is flushed red or is alternately red and pale. The slightest attempt to move the child makes it shriek with pain. The pupils do not react readily to light. The child has this chewing motion of the mouth as though it were chewing or sucking. The resemblances between the two remedies are so great as to make a selection often perplexing. Both remedies have haste in drinking water, both have crying out with pain, both have aggravation from motion, and both have constipation. At times you will find it very difficult to distinguish between the two.

To separate Belladonna from ACONITE is easier. The fevers caused by the two drugs are distinguished in the following manner: Belladonna does not produce fever primarily from its action on the sympathetic nervous system; Aconite does do that. Belladonna acts secondarily on the sympathetic and primarily on the cerebro-spinal nervous system, hence isof use only when that system is involved, which in children occurs very early in the case. In adults it is apt to commence as a fever, cerebral symptoms ensuing; thus Belladonna becomes the remedy. In the beginning of fever, Aconite is preferable when there is this violent anguish of mind, with restlessness, tossing about, fear of death, dry, hot skin, full, bounding pulse, some hallucinations, some crying out in sleep, and some muttering or foolish talk which belongs to the fever. These cerebral symptoms result from the high temperature and not from direct inflammation of the brain. But suppose this case goes on until the brain becomes involved. The skin becomes so hot that it almost burns the examining hand, or if you raise the bed-clothes there seems to come forth a hot steam from the patient. That is the kind of heat that belongs to Belladonna. At other times, along with this heat there is hot sweat (which is not so characteristic of Aconite), particularly about the head and face. Looking at the patient, you see the sweat standing out in beads on the forehead, and it is hot. Then, too, to enable us to distinguish still further, we have, prominently, these cerebral symptoms; jerking in sleep, hallucinations, visions, and courting death rather than fearing it. This is often the case in rheumatic fever. The whole system seems to be involved, producing general fever with pain in the joints flying about from place to place. This fever is almost always associated with profuse sour sweat, which gives no relief whatever. The patient seems to soak everything about him with the sweat, and the more he sweats the more he does not seem to get any better. Aconite does no good here but Belladonna does.

When the fever has somewhat subsided, and the sweat still continues, MERCURIUS is the proper remedy to follow.

In typhoid types of fever Belladonna is indicated sometimes in the beginning of the disease. It is indicated in the stage of excitement when the congestion of the brain predominates. We find furious delirium, with screaming out and violent efforts to escape from the bed or the house. The face is red, either a bright or deep red, bordering on the purple ; the pupils are dilated and the eyes injected. The patient is full of fear, imagining that all sorts of accidents are about to happen to him. The urine is scanty, and when passed it is usually a bright deep-yellow, with or without sediment. The feet are apt to be cold. The patient now falls into a heavy snoring sleep ; this sleep is not quiet, for there is apt to be associated with it some evidence of cerebral irritation, as jerking of muscles, twitching of limbs, and crying out. No matter how profound is this sleep, it is NEVER a perfectly quiet stupor; if it is, Belladonna is not the remedy. You will see from this that Belladonna is indicated not from any changes in the brain caused by the poisoned blood, but from changes resulting from congestion or inflammation. AV hen the disease has gone so far as to cause alterations in the fluids of the body, Belladonna is decreasingly indicated as these changes advance. Then you should have recourse to such remedies as HYOSCYAMUS, RHUS TOX., Lachesis, and many others.

Sometimes, we have a condition differing from the one already described, and yet Belladonna may be the remedy. This condition is often perplexing. The face is pale instead of red. Now this indication is just as characteristic of Belladonna as is the red face. It is usually associated with irritation of the brain and starting in sleep. It occurs usually in summes complaint, during dentition, and in colic and similar diseases.

The pulse is either full and hard, as under Aconite, or it is slow. It is slow when the cerebral congestion is sufficently great to cause some pressure on the brain. Here again you find an illustration of the alternating effects of Belladonna. The pulse may be rapid for awhile, and then it will become slow, and so it alternates.

We have already seen how Belladonna may be indicated in inflammation of the brain. It is also a valuable remedy in inflammation of other parts of the body. For instance, we find it to be the best, though by no means the only remedy we have in otitis media, or inflammation of the middle ear. This disease will perplex you at times. The symptoms are very severe. The child puts its hands to its head, and you may erroneously presume the trouble to be there. The pains are digging, boring, and tearing in character, and are necessarily so on account of the anatomical relations of the parts affected. They come suddenly, and are very violent. They seem to shoot into the other ear, or into the head, with buzzing and roaring in the ears. Now if you examine the ear, you will find the membrana tympani bulging outwards, its bloodvessels very much injected, in fact, it presents a highly inflamed appearance. There is rapid formation of pus, which seeks to escape either by bursting the membrane, by the Eustachian tube, or through some internal part. In case it takes the latter course, it produces alarming if not fatal symptoms. It is your duty to recognize this disease early, at which time you will have a chance of saving the ear. Belladonna is believed to be our best remedy for the disease in its early stages; later, we have other remedies indicated, as HEPAR and TELLURIUM.

Tellurium causes inflammation of the middle ear, with rupture of the membrana tympani, and pouring out of pus, which may, at first, be laudable, but afterwards becomes very offensive, having an odor like that of herring-brine.

In inflammations of the eyes, as in conjunctivitis or sclerotitis, we find Belladonna indicated by the suddenness of the pains, by the suddenness of the attack, and by the violence of the symptoms. There is great intolerance of light. The eye feels as if enormously swollen. The conjunctiva is bright red. These symptoms give you a perfect picture for Belladonna. It seems to attack the right eye more than the left. It is the intense congestion which guides us in the eye affections of Belladonna; and the same remark applies equally to neuralgias in and about the eye.

SPIGELIA has many eye pains like those of Belladonna, but they, are left-sided and lack the intense congestion.

AMYL NITRITE is similar to Belladonna, being indicated when the eyes and face are red.

PARIS QUADRIFOLIA is excellent when there are pains as if the eyes were drawn back by strings; the eyeballs feel too large (like Spigelia).

PRIMUS has a crushing pain, or sensation as if the eyes were pressed asunder, or sharp piercing pains through and around the eye.

Belladonna produces inflammation of the throat. The tongue in such cases is usually bright red, the papillae are enlarged or elevated, giving it a resemblance to the strawberry (and hence it has been called the strawberry tongue). At times, you find the tongue coated with a thin white layer on the dorsum, with the enlarged red papillae showing through this layer of white. But as the case advances this coating peels off, leaving a bright red, highly-inflamed tongue. The throat is a prominent point of attack in the Belladonna proving. The inflammation which it develops there is of a very common kind. Looking into the throat, you find the fauces inflamed and bright red; the tonsils enlarged, particularly the right, with tendency of the disease to extend towards the left. All these symptoms have the same rapidity of progress that we noticed with the Belladonna symptoms elsewhere. There is great contraction of the fauces and glottis, so that any attempt to swallow is followed by sudden constriction of the throat and ejection of the food through the nose and mouth. The patient makes an attempt to drink, and the moment the water touches the fauces it is ejected, and escapes in any way it can. The patient seems to be worse from swallowing fluids, more so, in fact, than from either saliva or solids. The tonsils rapidly suppurate; the glands in the neck, externally, are commonly involved, and are to be felt as hard but very sensitive kernels in the neck. Sometimes, you find a pearly-white exudate on the fauces, which is seen to be mucus and not fibrin. There is, therefore, strictly speaking, no resemblance between the Belladonna inflammation and that characteristic of diphtheria or membranous croup, so that when Belladonna is administered in diphtheria it must be indicated on other symptoms than those belonging to the membrane. The general character of diphtheria is that of blood-poisoning, while Belladonna does not poison the blood. When you give Belladonna in diphtheria, therefore, be certain that it is the remedy or you will lose valuable time. It may, occasionally, be the remedy in the early stages when the violence of the attack calls for it.

Let me here remind you that LYCOPODIUM affects the right tonsil, that it produces high temperature, crying out during sleep, and awaking from sleep cross and irritable. These symptoms we found under Belladonna also; so be sure when you give the latter remedy that Lycopodium is not the one that is indicated.

Then, again, you should think of Apis. APIS is a magnificent remedy in diphtheria. The exudate is more on the right tonsil; the throat is bright red and rosy; the tongue is red, and the fever is very high ; the skin dry and hot, the pulse accelerated, and the patient very restless.

But, in tonsillitis or quinsy, Belladonna stands at the head of the list of remedies. Here it far exceeds Apis in therapeutic value, because it attacks the parenchyma of the organ. The inflammation caused by Apis is superficial, only involving the mucous surface. In throat diseases Belladonna forms an interesting little group with HEPAR, MERCURIUS, SILICEA, and SULPHUR.

When, after the exhibition of Belladonna, and in spite of that remedy, pus forms, as indicated by the rigors and chills, and the sharp, lancinating pains with throbbing, you should change from that remedy to HEPAR. Even then, you may be able to prevent abscess.

Change to MERCURIUS if pus has already formed and the tonsil is enlarged and encroaches on neighboring parts, and ‘the breathing is labored. You notice that pus has shown itself; Mercurius given low, and repeatedly, will cause quick breaking of this abscess, and thus will relieve all these symptoms. If you give Mercurius at first you will greatly lengthen the course of your case.

Sometimes you must have recourse to SILICEA, when the abscess has discharged and refuses to heal. Pus keeps on forming and grows less and less laudable, and dark and foetid, and disagreeable to the taste.

In some of these cases Silicea fails; then we will have to interpolate a few doses of SULPHUR, which generally has the desired effect.

There is another remedy that we have used somewhat in this city, and that is the AMYGDALA PERSICA. This drug causes a dark red injection of the fauces, uvula, and tonsils, with sharp pains causing considerable difficulty in swallowing; sometimes, they are so severe as to make the patient cry out. With these symptoms it may be used in diphtheria. I have myself cured eases of this disease with Amygdala persica alone, when there were present this dark red color of the throat, the sudden sharp pains, and marked general prostration. Amygdala develops the prostrated, tired feeling which is incident to the first days of diphtheria.

In inflammations about the abdomen we find Belladonna the remedy ; for instance, in peritonitis, whether accompanied by metritis or not, and whether or not it is of puerperal origin. The symptoms which call for it are these: Commencing tympanites; the abdomen is swollen up like a drum, and very sensitive to the touch, so much so, in fact, that the patient wants all the bed-clothing removed. The least jarring in the room makes the patient worse. For instance, if you should unexpectedly kick your foot against the bed in walking near him, you cause him to complain of pain. You will also notice the pungent heat of which I have already spoken to you. The abdomen feels extremely hot to your hand. On raising the bed-clothes there appears to issue forth the hot steam to which reference has already been made. There is marked cerebral irritation. The lochial discharge is apt to be scanty or suppressed.

TILIA EUROPEA is a drug that I feel certain has not received due credit from the profession. It is useful in puerperal metritis when there is intense sore feeling about the uterus; there is also marked bearing-down, with hot sweat which gives no relief.

A remedy very commonly used by allopaths is TEREBINTHINA. Now, the symptoms which this drug has actually produced are these: Bearing down in the uterine region, burning like fire about the hypogastrium, burning on urinating, the urine is often cloudy and dark, having a muddy appearance. In these cases, the tongue is apt to be dry and red.

For this feeling of soreness in the uterus, Dr. Jeanes used a preparation of honey with salt, MEL CUM SALE. He used it in the third or sixth attenuation. His keynote for the selection of the drug was feeling of soreness in the hypogastric region extending from ilium to ilium. This is an. important indication in uterine displacements and in the commencement of metritis.

We have next to speak of the action of Belladonna on the skin. It causes at first an erythema, a bright scarlet redness of the skin ; the skin becomes exceedingly sensitive to the touch. Sometimes, this erythema consists in a uniform blush over the entire surface of the body such as we have in the Sydenham variety of scarlatina. At other times it has an erysipelatous appearance, coming as it does in streaks which start from some central point and radiate in all directions from that point, the color usually being quite bright, the swelling rapid with very quick involvement of the cellular tissue beneath the skin and in some cases, rapid formation of pus, which burrows deeply into the cellular tissue. Thus you have a true picture of phlegmonous erysipelas. With these symptoms, you do not often find development of vesicles or pustules. Instead of this, you find the surface smooth, shining and tense. Pains are violent and sharp. They are of a lancinating and stinging character and usually associated with a great deal of throbbing, particularly” if the deeper parts are involved in the inflammation.

If the erysipelas should attack the face, it almost always begins on the right side with tendency towards the left. There is almost always a tendency to cerebral irritation. The younger the patient, the greater is this tendency manifested. Do not confound this cerebral irritation with metastasis of erysipelas to the brain. It is a simple irritation caused either by the amount of fever, by the severity of the pain, or by the poisoning of the blood, or possibly all three; but it is not a true metastasis. If metastasis should take place, Belladonna may still be called for. If, however, Belladonna fail in these cases, we have other remedies; for instance, LACHESIS, when cerebral metastasis fails to yield to Belladonna, the face is of a purplish or bluish hue rather than of the bright or deep red of Belladonna. The patient is weaker, the pulse more rapid and lacking in force, and there is more drowsiness than we find under Belladonna.

Still another concordant remedy is CROTALUS which is quite similar to the Lachesis. So similar indeed that I can not give you any points of distinction between the two.

CUPRUM is to be thought of for this metastasis if the symptoms are spasmodic and violent. The patient is threatened with convulsions. There are vigorous contractions of the flexor muscles.

Returning now to the erythema of Belladonna, we learn that when the condition becomes general, it suggests the employment of the remedy in scarlet fever. In this disease, it is indicated first of all by this bright rosy hue of the whole body ; secondly, by the irritation of the brain and this of an active kind, the symptoms ranging from a simple starting from sleep or twitchings of individual groups of muscles to the most violent delirium with shrieking and jumping out of bed. The rash itself must be of the smooth kind. Belladonna does not cause a miliary rash. Vomiting is violent. Belladonna produces vomiting just as severely as does Ipecacuanha, particularly is it indicated in cerebral vomiting. Throat symptoms are prominent. There is bright red swelling of the throat, the tonsils are glistening, the tongue has the strawberry appearance, or if it is coated, the coating is thin and the elevated papillae show through. The pulse is full, strong and accelerated, and there is great restlessness, as you might expect. You may have swelling of the glands, particularly of those about the neck. You may have suppression of urine or copious urination. Either of these conditions is incident to the Belladonna case. The drowsiness or sleep is not that of clearly marked coma. There is not the sleepiness or stupor that is developed by poisoned blood, in which condition, the brain is so imperfectly supplied with oxygen that it loses its activity. That is not the Belladonna condition. The Belladonna sleep may be profound; the patient may snore ; he may sleep “as heavy as a log” but that sleep is not quiet and passive. He cries out in his sleep, the muscles twitch, the mouth is in constant motion as if chewing, there is grinding of the teeth. In fact, there are almost always present symptoms, showing that there is irritation of the brain of an active character. When the patient is aroused from sleep, he is violent, looking around the room wildly, striking at those about him. When, however, the disease from its very onset is of a malignant type or when it becomes so despite Belladonna, you cannot change too soon from that remedy. You must at once select another, such for example as LACHESIS, RHUS TOX., or HYOSCYAMUS.

LACHESIS has, in these cases, many symptoms similar to those calling for Belladonna. We find in both remedies, crying out during sleep, restlessness, irritability on awaking, strawberry tongue, redness of the whole surface of the body, suppressed urine, sore throat and vomiting. But wherein do they differ ? They differ in the very essence of the disease. In the case of Lachesis, the disease is adynamic and the blood poisoning is profound. The cerebral symptoms do not develop to a Belladonna FURORE, but there is more stupor. The skin has not the bright erythematous hue of Belladonna, but it is either pale, irregular and coming out imperfectly, or it is purplish and bluish. The throat shows you not only enlarged glands externally, but swelling of the connective tissue all around, in the tissues about the fauces as well as in them. The affected parts are rather of a purplish color. If there is a tendency to the formation of pus which is not laudable, all the more is Lachesis indicated.

RHUS TOX. often precedes Lachesis, particularly in cellulitis before it has assumed that purplish hue. The inflammation is of a low type. The rash is of the miliary type. (Also HYOSCYAMUS, STRAMONIUM, BRYONIA and LACHESIS.)

Returning again to Belladonna, we find sometimes that it fails, although the symptoms seem to call for it and the case is one of the Sydenham variety of scarlatina. The remedies to be thought of in this case, are two : SULPHUR which, just as strongly as Belladonna, produces a smooth erythema of the entire surface of the body. It may sometimes be indicated in the beginning of the case.

The other remedy is CALCAREA OSTREARUM, which is complementary to Belladonna, often completing what that remedy only partially cures. So in scarlatina, we find it indicated when the rash comes out under Belladonna but begins to pale off. The face becomes pale and bloated. The urine is scanty or even suppressed and the brain symptoms suggestive of Belladonna may yet be present.

Another action of Belladonna on the skin is the production of boils or abscesses. You may give it in mastitis or inflammation of the mamma?. It is here indicated by the violence of the symptoms, by the radiating redness, by the throbbing and tendency toward suppuration. The same symptoms call for it in abscess of any kind and in any situation. Even a bubo which is specific in its character may call for Belladonna if the symptoms are of the violent character already mentioned, and it will here do good service for the time being. We also find it the remedy for boils that recur in the spring.

Belladonna may be used successfully in the summer complaint of very young infants. We find it to be the remedy when there is crying or screaming hour after hour without any assignable cause. We find it also indicated in indigestion of infants, associated with sharp pains, suddenly screaming out and bending backwards, not forwards as under COLOCYNTH. Sometimes, the transverse colon is so distended that it protrudes like a pad in the umbilical region. This symptom sometimes occurs in lead colic. Then, too, we find Belladonna indicated in diarrhoea. It is particularly suited to a dysenteric diarrhoea, that is a diarrhoea from cold with enteritis, the discharges being associated with considerable tenesmus (for you must remember that Belladonna has great affinity for sphincter muscles) the discharges being slimy and bloody. In summer complaint, the stools are yellowish or green and contain lumps looking like chalk, consisting no doubt of caseine.

You must remember Belladonna as complementary to CHAMOMILLA in this colic and diarrhoea of infants.

Now we come to speak of the action of Belladonna on the female genital organs. It may be. used during labor when the os does not dilate, when there is a spasmodic condition of the cervix. The labor pains are violent and cause great distress, and yet the child does not advance. The examining finger finds that the os remains rigid and spasmodic. A few doses of Belladonna will be found to be sufficient to correct the trouble.

For rigidity of the os uteri you may also remember GELSEMIUM.