Kalmia latifolia, Mountain Laurel.

Botanical name: 
Please read the introduction to Boericke's tinctures.

A rheumatic remedy. Pains shift rapidly. Nausea and slow pulse frequently accompanying. Has also a prominent action on the heart. In small doses, it accelerates the heart's action; in larger it moderates it greatly. Neuralgia; pains shoot downwards, with numbness. Fulgurating pains of locomotor ataxia. Protracted and continuous fevers, with tympanites. Paralytic sensations; pains and aching in limbs accompany nearly every group of symptoms. Albuminuria.
Head.--Vertigo; worse stooping. Confusion of brain. Pain in front and temporal region from head to nape and to teeth; from cardiac origin.
Eyes.--Vision impaired. Stiff, drawing sensation when moving eyes. Rheumatic iritis. Scleritis, pain increased by moving the eye.
Face.--Neuralgia; worse right side. Stitches in tongue. Stitches and tearing in bones of jaw and face.
Stomach.--Warm, glowing sensation in epigastrium. Nausea; vomiting. Pain in pit of stomach; worse by bending forward; relieved by sitting erect. Bilious attacks, with nausea, vertigo, and headache. Sensation of something being pressed under the epigastrium.
Urinary.--Frequent, with sharp pains in lumbar region. Postscarlatinal nephritis.
Heart.--Weak, slow pulse (Dig; Apoc can). Fluttering of heart, with anxiety. Palpitation; worse leaning forward. Gouty and rheumatic metastasis of heart. Tachycardia, with pain (Thyroid). Tobacco heart. Dyspnoea and pressure from epigastrium toward the heart. Sharp pains take away the breath. Shooting through chest above heart into shoulder-blades. Frequent pulse. Heart's action tumultuous, rapid and visible. Paroxysms of anguish around heart.
Female.--Menses too early, or suppressed, with pain in limbs and back and inside of thighs. Leucorrhoea follows menses.
Back.--Pain from neck down arm; in upper three dorsal vertebrae extending to shoulder-blade. Pain down back, as if it would break; in localized regions of spine; through shoulders. Lumbar pains, of nervous origin.
Extremities.--Deltoid rheumatism especially right. Pains from hips to knees and feet. Pains affect a large part of a limb, or several joints, and pass through quickly. Weakness, numbness, pricking, and sense of coldness in limbs. Pains along ulnar nerve, index finger. Joints red, hot, swollen. Tingling and numbness of left arm.
Sleep.--Sleepless, wakes very early in morning.
Modalities.--Worse, leaning forward (opposite, Kali carb); looking down; motion, open air.
Relationship.--Compare: Kalmia contains Arbutin g v. Derris pinuta (of great service in neuralgic headaches of rheumatic origin). Compare: Spigelia; Pulsat. Complementary: Benz acid.
Dose.--Tincture, to sixth potency.


Boericke's Materia Medica, 1901, was written by William Boericke. Excerpt: The Tinctures.