The active principle of this plant is doubtless volatile, as the dried
root presents none of the acridity of the fresh, and is odorless as
well. Dr. J. M. Turner determined in the root a volatile fatty body, a
volatile oil, a fixed oil, and a specific resin.
* * * * *
On the 16th of December, 1887, there came into my hands a case that the
family physician (a homoeopath) had pronounced epilepsy and declared
incurable. Upon being consulted, his diagnosis had been confirmed and
his prognosis corroborated by the late Prof. E. S. Dunster, of the
University of Michigan.
Up to date that identical patient has had neither a "fit" nor any
approximation thereto, and that fact is an occasion of this paper. One
who already discerns the first gray shadows of that night which comes to
all, does not now write at the urging, or the _itching_, of the Ego. He
disclaims any merit, having evinced only a monkey-like imitativeness. He
had from the Infinite, the gift of a good memory, and an old book,
picked up one happy day at a street stall, flashed into recollection
some twelve years later, and enabled him then to imitate the much
earlier doing of its worthy author--
"Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust."
This dead worthy--he that was James Thacher, M. D.--more than any other,
made known the virtues of _Pothos foetida_, and gratitude for what his
book had taught me to do made me feel that to write up this forgotten
remedy were the fittest return that I could make for his well doing.
A second incentive, ample enough, is found in the fact that the first
homoeopathic paper on _Pothos foet._ has never had a faithful
translation into our language, and has not been critically reproduced in
any other. A study of the _Homoeopathic Bibliography_, as given in
this paper, will teach an impressive lesson not only to the _real_
student of Materia Medica, but also to those who assume the
responsibilities of editorship.
A third inducement, and perhaps a pardonable, is the singular fact that
much search in our literature has not enabled me to find any assistance
of the clinical application of _Pothos foet._ by a homoeopathic
practitioner. If any reader knows of any such, he will greatly gratify
the writer by making it known.