Verbena Hastata

NAT. ORD., Verbenaceae.



COMMON NAMES, Blue Vervain, Purvain, Wild Hyssop.



PREPARATION.--One part of the fresh plant, in flower, is macerated in

two parts by weight of alcohol.



(An extract from a paper by Dr. J. N. White, Queen City,

Texas, detailing at length the case of a five-year-old

boy, who, after six weeks of whooping cough, developed

epil ptic symptoms, having as high as twelve spasms in

twenty-four hours. After two months of treatment with

such remedies as Solanum Car., Sulphonal,

Hyoscyamus, Cannabis Ind., Calomel, Zinc, etc.,

with no results, the case was given Verbena hastata.

Another doctor was in consultation and we quote:)



I told my friend (the Doctor) that when he became satisfied with the

zinc treatment I wanted to try another eclectic remedy. (The Doctor was

an allopath.) He was perfectly willing and I put him on Verbena

hastata, 12 minims every four hours, skipping the dose at midnight.

After we both took the case we decided, as there were no curative

properties in the sulfonal, we would drop it, and not use anything to

control the paroxysms, and consequently the boy seemed to get worse to

the parents, as he would have several falling spells a day. From the

first dose of the Verbena hastata the boy began to improve. He would

have contractions of the muscles of the arms and legs and look wild for

a minute or more for the first week, but after that he never had another

symptom. We kept him on the medicine, as above, for six weeks, and now

he takes twelve drops three times a day.



He has not had any symptom in over two months, and all that wild vacant

look is gone, and he plays, eats, sleeps, etc., as if he had never been

troubled with epilepsy.