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ARBORiVITAL MEDICINE
AN INQUIRY INTO THE CURATIVE POWERS OP SOME OF OUR COMMON FIELD AND GARDEN PLANTS. JUDGED OF BY THE DISEASES OF THE EAR

And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of nations - Rev xxii,

By Robert T. Cooper .mA. mD. London
Physician Diseases of the Ear. London Homeopathic Hospital

The title chosen for this paper is one that requires explanation. The term Arborivital is given for two reasons firstly, from my conviction that all vegetation in living or rather growing vegetation are to he found forces sufficient to cope with all diseases or to express the same truth in wider or more general language, to vegetation, king of which is the Tree directed by the hand of man, are we to look for the removal of all kinds of calamity amongst animal life, king of which is Man, agreeably with the Biblical dictum; the Tree of the field is man's life, Deut. xx., v 19c. And, secondly, because the term Arborivital implies to some extent the existence of a living force - so to speak -- in plants, the laws of which in its behavior upon human disease tissue. It is my object to ascertain, and which I aim at ascertaining as far as possible apart from any medicinal force, that is fairly attributable to the irritating particles of which the plant is composed, or to the existence of a chemical active principle, or to a force engendered by the well known succession or trituration.
The assumption upon which I start is that we must seek to utilize the growth force of plants as being a force, which if more studied and more sought after in the preparation of herbal remedies will inevitably improve our therapeutic system. Of course any sphere of practice leads me to deal principally with the diseases of the ear.
Ear diseases are capable of being included in two great groups, fairly recognizable by the symptoms, Deafness and Tinnitus [and discharges], Ear diseases do not show the varied and complicated symptoms that other organs show.
Starting as I do with the assumption that the Growth Force is THE force whose laws should be determined, it follows that the effect of every plant, upon diseased states, should be investigated – quite independently of anything at present known of them. Our scheme of investigation, which assumes an all-powerful growth, force in every plant and tries to discover its laws.
Lycopodium owes its efficiency to trituration and succussion, so that it and others like it come under the category of dried substances. An Arborivital preparation of lycopodium WOULD BE FROM THE STEM, LEAVES AND LEAF STALK of the GROWING fern.
The single dose answering all that can be expected from medicines. Take the typical case by Hahnemann.
A washerwoman about 40, was unable to work for 3 weeks, on Sept 1st 1815.On any movement she has a shooting in the left side. When she lies down she is well. Cannot sleep after 3 o/c at night. Likes food but when she eats feels sick. Water collect sin her mouth and runs out. Eructations after every meal. Temper is disposed to anger. Pain makes her sweat.
Hahnemann said, “ I gave her one of the strongest of homeopathic doses, a full drop of the pure juice of bryonia root. And bade her return in 48 hours. “ She did not return as she was no longer sick.
The idea with which in this investigation, I start is that we are surrounded by thousands of remedial agents, Ones that, with a little patience one can discover the remedial actions and that every medical practitioner ought to be the preparer of the greater portion of his own medicaments. I limit myself to the small dose, one drop at a time; the resulting disturbance cannot possibly be such as to leave harmful consequences.

This case is in every way characteristic of the , remedy a tendency to free discharge from mucous membranes, relaxed condition of the system generally and a proness to take cold on exposure to cold winds. Its action certainly reminds us of scilla maratima, next to which is usually described in works on botany both being of the same natural order, the liliaceae.
I have seen however, sufficient of the action of the remedy to convince me that there are strong points of difference between the two, and that in the bluebell of the wood we have a remedy for children, which in some points is of extreme importance
Another case we may mention is that of a girl 5 1/2 years for whom, on the 10th of September 1892, agraphis nutans was prescribed. She had a sore throat a week ago leaving profuse discharge from the left ear with deafness, the child's general condition being feeble. improvement in every way was recorded, child in every way stronger and better, ear discharge much less and deafness apparently gone.
In the case of a girl of 12 where post nasal growths and enlarged tonsils had followed upon diptheria some six years previously, a single dose of agraphis nutans was followed by a lessening of the symptoms, viz, talking in the sleep, mouth open, fulness of the tonsils, twitchings of the nose, loss of smell, recurring colds in the head, and improvement has continued under the same given at intervals of several weeks.
A governess of 30 admitted the 10th September, 1892, very deaf in both ears for five years. with hissing tinnitus,cause unknown, very nervous and weak, easily tired, constant headache across the forehead and bridge of the nose ,aggravated by high winds [has just returned from a sea voyage which in every way made her ears worse], dry feeling and burning in the throat, monthly pperiod followed by profuse leucorrhea, no pain or backache. Repeat agraphis nutans. Ist October1892, hearing much improved, tinnitus less, head lighter,deafness appears much less and the creaking in her head , as if a bell was ringing is much less.
At the same time the force associated with the material particles of the plant, the original growth force, derived from potentization by means of exposure of the living plant in spirit will represent as nearly as possible, each of them a definite power, which inn contrast. with ordinary homeopathic preparations , is in Agraphus Nutans ,vel Hyacinthus Nutans,vel Hyacinthus Non Scriptus, the common bluebell of the woods, natural order Liliacae . Tincture made with rectified spirit and juice of the budding stalk and young leaves March 1892 .
This remedy, which was one of the first, that engaged my attention and which has continued to interest me more and more every day, posesses an action that seems in every way definite and distinct.
The plant itself has at all times been a favorite; one of our earliest spring flowers, it brightens and lends colour all the early year to our shaded woods. The bluebell shades itself in shrubberies and while nestling close to the wood-anemone takes care to be well shaded by the smaller hazel twigs, beneath which it is so often found , from the cold easterly breezes.
Its action as a remedy finds remarkable illustration in the case of a little girl five years of age living at Brixton, who was admitted under me at the L. H Hospital June 11, 1892, with deafness and otorrhea of both cars, dating twelve months back. and a history of three bad attacks of bronchitis; one at a year old, one at two years and a third at three. Her eyes and nose discharged profusely and had to be bathed every morning. The little girl has always been subject to cough and for four or five months has been bringing up dark grey mucus. Bowels, are regular appetite poor, and perspires much in bed.
Agraphis Nutans. June 25 1892, altogether better but has a hacking cough with beady phlegm first thing in the morning, discharge much less from both eyes and nose: August 6th, 1892. - Once during the interval a discharge vaginal in situation and catamenial in appearance, was noticed but did not continue. In every possible way the child has improved ; hearing much better the eye and nose no longer require bathing, and though the discharge is still seen it is very much less.
I treated a little deaf mute three years old that dribbled from the corners of the mouth. A few weeks after a dose of Agraphis, I found that the dribbling had entirely ceased and the general condition, including the hearing had improved. The action of Agraphis is not direct but secondary, acting upon the glands connected with the orbit, the nasal cavities, the pharyngeal and buccal mucous, hence it is for mutism, not so much deaf mutism that I would recommend it. In addition to this Agraphis acts on the head, clearing and strengthening the memory, often removing tinnitus.

Many times additional alcohol has been freely added from time to time to prevent evaporation. All I aim at in the preperation is to secure and preserve the growth force , and to prepare the tincture in such a way as to leave little doubt about its presence. For this reason I advocate the preparation of Arborivital tinctures in the field from the living plant, the preparer carrying with him a container into which the budding stalk and youmg leaves of the plant are placed fresh as they grow, and upon these simply crushed between finger and thumb should be poured rectified spirit. But more than this, In order the efficacy of the tincture and to secure with certainty the power of the growth-force I am in the habit of plunging the living stalk while yet connected with theplant into the spirit, and allowing the strongest sunlight that usually plays upon it in its native habitat to fall upon the phial filled with the spirit the stalk being at tile same time immersed in it.
Thus our tinctures are presumably potentised and each potentisation will represent five minutes exposure. When the branches are thus subjected to the spirit and the ssunlight for an hour I find that the branch and its leaves have in most cases withered; at the termination and therefore, of each twelfth potency a fresh branch or stalk are subjected to the same process.
Thus: Plantago lanceolata A will be plantago lanceolata 12th arborivital mother tincture. The12th I have used that thus the remedy has has a more certain curative influence
To say that such preparations are stronger than others as has been claimed for the homeopathic dilutions, would require a definition of the word stronger and I therefore avoid this statement purposely , all I commit myself to is that tinctures thus potentized represent powers different from those prepared in the ordinary way, and that their curative properties are as far as I can judge from clinical experience , more certain. The arborivital tincture will therefore, be potentised directly from plants as they grow, and are hence to coin a word, termed heliosthens and a drop of a high heliosthen say 12, will mean a drop of as definite material strength as it as it is possible to obtain from a plant by the action of rectified spirit uponn it, plus any strength communicated to it by our method of potentising and which of necessity is of purely hypothetical quantity. At the same time the force cannot be doubted

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