Dr. Purdon, of the University of Dublin, relates a case of epilepsy cured with this drug in 1 to 6 drop doses several times a day.
Dr. F. E. Howard, in a case which had 3 or 4 attacks a week, gave 5 drops of the tincture every two hours, which caused violent pains in the head, but complete recovery followed on reducing the dose.
Several cases of the cure of epilepsy with _OEnanthe_ in alternation with _Silicea_ or some other drug have been reported, but as the question, "which cured?" comes in they need not be given.
In my own practice I have had some marked results from its action and have seen it modify attacks when everything else failed. In two cases, one a boy of 13 who had had the disease 5 years and who had suffered much of many sphincter-stretching orificialists and "lots of other things," the remedy made a complete cure; the other case was in a man of 30 who had the grand mal, the petit mal and the epileptic vertigo. _OEnanthe_ removed entirely the two former conditions leaving only the latter, and that in a very mild degree. It also greatly improved the mental condition of the patient.
I have several cases under treatment at the present time, and some of them are showing a marked effect from its use. The question of dose I believe to be an important one. I used generally the tincture in water, but latterly I have been using the third, and I believe with better effect than I ever obtained with the tincture, and I am now of the opinion that the lower dilutions, say from the 3 to the 12, will be found more efficacious than the tincture, and the higher potencies will suit certain cases. In order to prescribe the drug with accuracy provings will be necessary to develop its finer symptomatology.
PREPARATION.--The purified Paraffin is triturated in the usual way.
(This proving was made by Dr. Wahle, of Germany, who was the chemist of Hahnemann. He never published it, but gave the manuscript to his son, who in his turn gave it to Dr. Held, now a practicing physician in Rome. Dr. Held at the request of his colleagues translated it into Italian and it appeared in the medical journal, _L'Omiopatia in Italia_, from which this article is translated and slightly condensed. The remedy is used by the homoeopaths of Rome and found to be valuable in uterine and other troubles, indicated by the proving. It is particularly serviceable in constipation.)