Urtica Urens.
Urtica urens. Small Stinging-nettle. [Urtica dioica, the Common Nettle,
has similar if not identical properties.] N. O. Urticaceć. Tincture of the fresh plant in
flower.Clinical.─
Agalactia. Anćmia. Bee-stings. Burns. Calculus, prevention of. Deltoid, rheumatism of.
Dysentery. Erysipelas, vesicular. Erythema. Gout.
Gravel. Hćmorrhages. Intermittents. Lactation. Leucorrhśa. Menorrhagia. Phlegmasia dolens.
Renal colic. Rheumatism. Spleen, affections of. Throat,
sore. Urćmia. Urticaria; nodosa. Vertigo. Whooping-cough. Worms.
Characteristics.─
Burnett may be said to have
rediscovered Urtica as a remedy. The history of how he
came to use it (Gout, p. 33) is one of the most
fascinating passages of his works. As a remedy for a fit of the gout the discovery is
entirely his own, and the result of great therapeutic acumen. Its use in gravel and urinary
affections is very old. “Being eaten, as Dioscorides saith, boiled with periwinkles, it
maketh the body soluble, doing it by a kind of cleansing faculty: it also provoketh urine
and expelleth stones out of the kidneys: being boiled with barley cream it is thought to
bring up tough humours that stick in the chest.” Gerarde, from whom I quote, mentions
these other uses: (1) The juice inserted into the
nostrils stops nose-bleed; it is “good against inflammation of the uvula.” (2) Pleurisy, pneumonia, whooping-cough. (3)
Antidote to Hemlock, Mushrooms, Quicksilver, Henbane, Serpents, Scorpions. “The leaves
or seeds of any kind of nettle,” says Gerarde, “do work the like effect, but not
with that good speed and so assured as the Roman nettle “(U.
Pilulifera). “A bundle of nettles,” says Cooper, “applied to a
rheumatic joint or part, has long been a favourite country remedy. A leaf of the nettle
placed on the tongue and pressed to the roof of the mouth stops bleeding from the
nose.” Burnett’s tincture is made of the small nettle, U.
urens, which is the correct one in homśopathy. Burnett had used Urt. u. a good deal in spleen affections, and found patients
under its use often passed large quantities of gravel. To a middle-aged maiden lady who had
enlarged spleen, and “who smelled so strongly of nettles that it almost nauseated me
whenever it was my duty to examine her,” Burnett gave Urt. u.
Ř. Whilst taking it she passed large quantities of gravel. But this did not attract much
notice, as the lady was in the habit of passing considerable quantities of gravel with her motions. Localised abdominal pain preceding such an
occasion by a number of days. The painful spot, just under her spleen, she called her
“gravel-pit.” Putting this and other points together, the fever-action of Urtica among the number, Burnett concluded that Urtica was a remedy for acute gout, which would cut short the
attack “in a safe manner, namely, by ridding the
economy of the essence of the disease product, its actual suffering-producing
material.” He usually ordered five drops of the tincture in a wineglassful of quite
warm water every two or three hours. Under its action the urine became more plentiful, dark,
and loaded with uric acid. Burnett remarks of the nettle that it springs up everywhere near
human habitations, and he has noticed it flourishing more by the side of ditches which carry
off fluid sewage, “thus possibly living to some extent on uric food.” A very
severe case of urćmia was cured by him with Urt. His
discovery of its fever action was through the cure of a lady patient of his of ague (which
he had not succeeded in curing) by drinking nettle-tea on the advice of her charwoman. Urt. ur. was his sheet-anchor in cases of the fevers of the
East-India, Burma, and Siam. This action of Urtica, as
well as its antigout action, I have had abundant opportunity of verifying. Urtica causes fever as well as cures it, and one of Burnett’s
patients was obliged to stop taking it: “It sets all my pulses beating, makes me
terribly giddy, makes me feel as if I was going to topple (forwards) on my head, and then a
bad headache comes on; and when I take it at night, it
makes me very feverish.” When she took the dose in the morning she did not have the
fever, and Burnett says, “The fever of gout generally comes on at night.” He has
often cured vertigo with Urt. The provings of Urtica are not very extensive, but supplemented by clinical
observations, the picture is fairly complete. Headache, with spleen pain; rush of blood to
head; soreness of abdomen; dysentery; burning and itching of anus; śdema; urticaria;
rheumatic and gouty pains, and fever were all evoked. Among the rheumatic pains a pain in
the right deltoid muscle is very striking. The relation of this symptom to Burnett’s use of Urt. is illustrated by the case of Dr. W. H. Proctor (A. H., xxvii. 126). The doctor was suddenly seized with agonising
pain in right deltoid muscle, due, he believed, to retention of uric acid in the system.
Hypodermic injections of Morphia and Atropia had to be resorted to. Then followed, for three
weeks, scanty, pale urine, sour sweat, sleeplessness, restlessness, nervousness, loss of
appetite, almost constant pain in deltoid with great soreness and lameness of the muscle, an
intense sensation of general sickness and weakness with continued
fever. Nothing did any good. Finally there appeared: An intense burning sensation
in the skin after sleeping: he was afraid to go to sleep
for fear of the suffering. Urt. ur. Ř was now taken.
After three doses he drifted into a quiet, refreshing sleep of two or three hours and woke
absolutely free from all skin irritation. The nerves were quieted and all symptoms passed
away. Soon after, Proctor had an opportunity of curing a patient of lameness of the deltoid
of some standing in the same expeditious way. In this case there were no additional
symptoms. J. L. Nottingham (H. R., xv. 244) treated (1) Mrs. W., 38, tall, slender, with auburn hair, for eczema
vulvć with violent itching and burning, swelling and thickening of labia, smooth, pale, dry
appearance of the mucous surface, a dry, scaly, fissured appearance of labia majora and
skin. Thirteen years before, she had had a sinus from the right ovary emptying into the
uterus. (The husband had sycotic warts on the glans penis.) Urt. ur.
1x relieved all the symptoms and removed sexual excitement induced by the itching and
uncontrollable desire to rub. (2) Mr. N., 21, had
swelling, stinging, burning of face, hands, and feet, with redness. Rubbing with finger-tip
would leave a white line for some time. When out in the cold, damp, snowy air, hands, feet,
and face became purple red, puffed, and stinging cold; going into a warm room he had
increased swelling, stinging, itching all over him, especially of hands and face. Urt. ur. relieved in twenty-four hours. In four days he returned
home better than he had been for years. (3) A woman with
a lump in her left breast of some years’ duration, was seen six weeks after childbirth,
complaining of stinging pains in that part, entire absence of milk, stinging pains in whole
right lower limb, with great soreness and stinging pains accompanying movements involving
muscles of left side of head, cervical vertebrć, sacrum, and upper limbs, front of chest
and both breasts, especially the left. She was very despondent. Act.
r. relieved her, but the improvement ceased after a week. Con. improved the
difficulty in moving the head but not the other symptoms. Urt. ur.
was given, and after three days the breasts filled with milk and the pain was relieved. The
breasts had now to be supported on account of their fulness. The right leg became natural.
The action of Urt. in causing flow of milk has been
often confirmed. In the case given in Allen it caused
swelling of the breasts and profuse flow of milk in a woman years after the birth of her
last child. Urt. is one of the best remedies for burns
of the first degree, used locally and given internally. Gerarde mentions its antidotal
action to snake-bites. A writer in Monats. f. Hom. of
July, 1900 (H. Envoy, xi. 51) says it is the specific for bee-stings. An application of the tincture even
on the most sensitive parts of the face or eyelid gives instant relief. In cases of stings
about the eyes the application may have to be repeated every five minutes; and a compress
must be kept on all night. Eclectics regard” “profuse discharge from the mucous
surfaces” as a specific indication for Urt. In
Sweden nettles are regarded as a remedy for anćmia, and fresh nettles are cooked and eaten
like spinach for the purpose, or a nettle-tea is prepared from dry nettles. The juice of
nettles with sugar is in vogue for hćmorrhages of all kinds. Sensations
of Urt. are: As from a blow in the eyeballs. As of sand
in eyes. Muscles of right arm as if bruised. Burning, stinging, itching, and soreness are
the principal pains. The right side very much affected; but also the left hypochondrium
(spleen). The symptoms are apt to return at the same season every year. This periodicity is
a point in the correspondence of Urt. to ague. The
symptoms are < by touch; lying on arm. < Violent exertion (hćmoptysis). Lying down = soreness of bowels; >
nettle-rash. Burning in skin is < after sleep. < From application of water. (In the one observation with U. crenulata, an attack like lockjaw was induced in a man who
lightly touched the plant, and this was renewed for some days in full force whenever he put his hand in water.) <
Exposed to cool, moist atmosphere.─Some new symptoms of Burnett’s I have
marked (B) in the Schema.
Relations.─
Antidoted by:
Dock leaves (Rumex obtus.) rubbed on the stung part lessen the pain; also the nettle’s own
juice, and the juice from the common snail. Antidote to:
Apis (bee-stings). Compare: Gout, fever, spleen, Nat m.
Dropsy, urćmia, gravel, gout, Ur. ac., Urea, Urinum. [The relation of Urt. to Nat. m. and
Urinum is interesting in connection with the fact that nettles do not grow at any distance
from human dwellings or away from parts where animals are fed. Schlegel asks (H. R., xii. 179), is this due to the wetting of the soil with
urine? He says yes; and queries further, if the salt in
the urine is the efficient agent, recalling the fact that Barbarossa, after destroying
Milan, strewed salt over the ruins “so that nettles might grow there.” Schlegel remarks that the briny
waves produce stinging nettles of their own in the shape of Medusć.] Fever, vertigo,
spleen, Querc. Spleen, Cean. Rheumatism of right deltoid, Sang. Secretion of milk, Ric.,
Puls. Urticaria, Apis, Nat. m., Ast. fl., Medusa, Homar, Pariet.
Causation.─
Burns. Bee-stings. Blows. Suppressed
milk. Suppressed nettle-rash.
SYMPTOMS.
2. Head.─
Terribly giddy, as if I were going to
topple forwards on my head; then headache (B).─Fulness in head,
sensation of rush of blood and dulness; all day, with giddiness.─Headache
< over eyes.─Headache with
stitches in region of spleen.─Pain: in r. side of sinciput; and in r.
side of face, extending to malar-bone; over r. eye and eyeball; over eyes during the day and
evening; neuralgic, in r. side of forehead and face at 9 p.m.─Stinging
pain in r. parietal bone forcing me to rub and press it.─Dull aching in
occiput and over eyes.─Urticaria of scalp suddenly appearing and
determining internally.
3. Eyes.─
Pain: in r. eye; in l. at 3 p.m.─Pain
in eyeballs as from a blow, with feeling as if sand were in eyes.─Eyes
feel weak and sore.
9. Throat.─
Burning in throat; with frequent
hawking of frothy mucus; causing cough, expectoration scanty, frothy.
11. Stomach.─
Nausea, with burning in throat.─Vomiting
from suppression of nettle-rash.
12. Abdomen.─
Soreness of abdomen at 10 a.m. when
lying, and on pressure a sound as if bowels were full of water.─Pain in
l. hypochondrium at 10 p.m.─(Tumour of liver stored gout.”─Burnett.)
13. Stool and Anus.─
Stool omitted in morning, but
at 2 p.m. scanty, dysenteric stool, a greenish-brown slime, with urging and tenesmus,
afterwards constipation, then small stool with straining, later dysentery, frequent urging,
small painful stool, mucus mixed with white matter like boiled white of eggs, at times a
little blood, pain in abdomen for a week.─Stool omitted for three days,
then six hours after Nux 3 a natural stool, four hours later several dysenteric stools of
whitish slime, with pain around umbilicus, then for the next five days, daily, two to four
white, and yellow stools mixed with mucus, with colic and tenesmus.─A
small hćmorrhoid, with raw burning in anus during and after stool, and in afternoon and
evening itching and burning.─Ascarides with great rectal irritation.
14. Urinary Organs.─
Urine suppressed for eight
days, everything disappeared with desquamation.─Suppression of urine for
twelve days; śdematous swelling of whole upper body to umbilicus.─Strangury;
gravel; disease of bladder and kidneys.─Hćmorrhage from bladder.
15. Male Sexual Organs.─
Itching of scrotum, kept
him awake at night and tormented him nearly all day; scrotum swollen; stinging and itching;
no moisture.
16. Female Sexual Organs.─
Menorrhagia; intense
hćmorrhage.─Leucorrhśa, very acrid or excoriating.─Pruritus
vulvć with great itching, stinging, and śdema of the parts.─A woman
who had had no children for three years and a half, and had nursed none of her children, had
at first great swelling of breasts, which discharged serum, then copious milk (from a pint
of hot infusion of the herb).─Arrested flow of milk after weaning.
17. Respiratory Organs.─
Whooping-cough.─Not
much expectoration, and what there is is frothy.
18. Chest.─
Sore feeling as from a blow in l. side
of chest.─Intermittent soreness in r. chest during day.─Hćmoptysis
from least exertion of lungs.
19. Pulse.─
Pulse accelerated.
21. Limbs.─
Rheumatic pain in arms and ankles, < r. arm.
22. Upper Limbs.─
Pain in r. deltoid, < 9 p.m., could not put on his coat alone.─Cramp-like
pain in r. deltoid in evening; < rotating arm inward,
with soreness to touch, with rheumatic feeling in l. arm; next day pain in r. arm < by lying on it; and on moving it a stitch darted through
arm, extending over front of humerus.─At times pain in l. arm, muscles
of r. arm feel sore as if bruised, cannot raise or stretch r. arm on account of pain,
afterwards rheumatic stiffness and pain in r. wrist, later rheumatic pain in l. arm, wrist,
and fingers.─Raised, red, itching blisters on skin of hands and fingers.─(Nodous
joints of fingers.─R. T. C.)
23. Lower Limbs.─
Stiff soreness on inside of l.
knee.─Rheumatic pain in both ankles.
24. Generalities.─
Symptoms returned at the same
time every year.─Hćmorrhage from various organs.─Dropsy.─Sets
all my pulses beating (B)
25. Skin.─
Itching swellings all over fingers and
hands, resembling “bold hives”; lumps and red spots on hands and fever blisters on
lips, itching.─Heat in skin of face, arms, shoulders, and chest, with
formication, numbness and itching, lips, nose, and ears swollen, lids so śdematous that
they could scarcely be opened, after awhile upper part of body as far as navel śdematous
and pale, transparent blisters filled with serum and looking like sudamina, becoming
confluent and making the skin look wrinkled, lids closed, forming transparent, here and
there bluish shining swellings as large as hen’s eggs: disappeared on sixth day with
desquamation.─(Intense burning in skin after sleep.).─Erythema.─Vesicular
erysipelas.─Burns and scalds.
26. Sleep.─
Drowsiness when reading.
27. Fever.─
General heat on getting into bed, with
soreness over abdomen.─When I take it at night it makes me very feverish
(not when taken in morning.─B).® 2000
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