X V.

Lilium Tigrinum (Tiger Spotted Lily.)

By WM. E. PAYNE, M. D.*

Botanical Characteristics.

The lilium tigrinum is a well-known, showy, orange-colored, coarseflowered, garden plant, very abundant in cultivation, and is a native of China and Japan. It belongs to the natural order, liliacea. The stem is from four to six feet high (varying in the rankness of growth in accordance with the quality of the soil in which it is planted), unbranched and woolly. Leaves, scattered, sessile, three-veined, the upper cordate-ovate; the axils bulbiferous. Flowers, large, in a pyramid at the summit of the stem, dark orange-colored, with black or very deep crimson, somewhat raised spots, which give the flower the spotted appearance of the skin of the tiger, and from which circumstance it has derived its name; perianth revolute and papillose within. It is hardy enough to thrive in open ground in the vigorous climate of the north, and is propagated by the bulbs produced in the axils of the leaves, as well as by those that surround the mother bulb. It blooms freely in July and August. The bulbs are said to be used by the Japanese as an article of food. It was first brought from China, and introduced into the royal botanical gardens at Kew, in 1804. A very good representation of the lilium tigrinum, may be found in the Botanical Magizine, plate 1237, taken, it is said, from the plant in the Kew gardens. See also accompanying illustrations. Owing to a general external resemblance, there is a liability, with those unacquainted with botany, of confounding this plant with the Lilium Philadelphicum. But the botanical distinctions are very marked, and easily recognized by those who have but a limited knowledge of botany.

The tiger lily, so far as known, has been regarded and cultivated only as a garden ornament. But it has been long known to botanists as belonging to a tribe of plants which has furnished several therapeutic agents of great value, of which the aloe; allium sativum (garlic); allium cepa (onion); scillæ maratima (squill); asparagus:

* Report of the Central Bureau of Materia Medica, to American Institute of Homœopathy, 1870.

dracena draco (dragon's blood); and convallaria polygonatum (Solomon's seal); are conspicuous examples. The lilium candidum (white lily), which belongs to the same family, is also traditionally credited with important uterine medicinal properties.

In view, then, of this botanical relationship the inference was entirely legitimate that the lilium tigrinum possessed valuable medicinal properties. The reported death of a child in convulsions by eating the pollen of the flower, suggested the idea of proving the drug, and the hope of finding in it additional means of combatting the sometimes formidable convulsions arising from acute and chronic meningeal irritation, prompted the execution of the work. Though the hope is not realized in the proving, yet the promise in a class of diseases, which from their multiplicity have become the bane of female happiness, is sufficiently strong to inspire confident expectations that this drug will henceforth hold an important place in the homœopathic materia medica.

The provings, fifteen in all, were made with the tinctures or attenuations prepared therefrom of either the whole plant with the flowers combined, or the pollen alone, gathered in the months of August and September, when the plant was in full maturity. No difference was observed in the disease-begetting power of the plant and the pollen. Both seemed equally potent in developing symptoms.

Several of the provings were made under the supervision of our able colleague, Prof. Carroll Dunham, of New York city, the most. important of which is indicated by the letter W; one, a very valuable proving, indicated by the letter F, under the direction of Dr. Wm. Gallupe, of Bangor, Maine, who is a careful observer; and one, indicated by the letter Y, under the eye of Dr. J. W. Savage, of Wiscasset, Maine, to each of whom, on behalf of the profession, as well as in acknowledgment of personal favors, I return sincere thanks.

In the arrangement, the object has been to preserve, as far as practicable, groups of symptoms as they successively appeared in the proving. In carrying out this plan, the same group, or a portion of it, has been repeated under different headings. This is more particularly the case under "Moral Symptoms and Reproductive Organs."

Here it seemed important to preserve the unity, as the relationship between the uterine functions and the mental and moral conditions is so intimate that the former cannot be long disturbed without

implicating the latter. Should the tiger lily, after sufficient trial at the bedside, be found worthy of a place in a future edition of the materia medica, a revision of the arrangement with reference to brevity can be made.

The original day-book of the provings is published in the Transactions of the American Institute of Homeopathy for 1871. The following is a list of the

FEMALE-Great depression of spirits, with fearfulness and apprehension of an impending fatal internal disease, or that it was already preying upon her; constant inclination to weep (very marked): blurred vision, all objects appearing very indistinct. (Y)

Great anxiety of mind; constantly troubled; vexed feelings toward everybody; don't want to speak or be spoken to. (F) Irritable and impatient. (F.)

Despondent and gloomy, with loss of memory and great difficulty in expressing her thoughts, often selecting wrong words, but in making the correction would as often take other words quite as inappropriate; great fear and dread of insanity. (F.)

More active; things go easily. [First day.] (W.)

Does not want to be pleased, and don't want to talk, but wants to sleep, and, during sleep, very unpleasant dreams. [Sixth day.] (W.) Wild feeling in the head, with confusion of ideas; pressure, and a crazy feeling on the top of the head, rendering her incapable of recording her own symptoms; fear of insanity, and that, should she become insane, there would be no one to take care of her; worse at night, but better in the morning. [Eighth day.]

(W.)

Opposite mental states; she feels nervous and irritable, and yet says she feels jolly. (W.)

Desires to do something, but feels no ambition. (W.)