EUPHRASIA is a valuable herbal remedy which has been employed by the people since time immemorial. Dr. Clarke writes in his Dictionary of Materia Medica:.
“According to Grauvogl, the signature of a black spot in the corolla which looks like the pupil, marked Euphrasia as an eye medicine to the ancients, and homoeopathic experiments have fully confirmed its old-time reputation. Eye symptoms appear in great variety and the irritation extends to the skin around the eye and to the nose, producing nasal catarrh and affections of the external nose. Hering mentions flat cancer on right side of nose as having come within its curative range.”.
Lately, some letter and an article on Euphrasia have been published by John o Londons Weekly, which may be of interest to the readers of this Journal. In the issue of November 16th there was a letter worded as follows:.
“Euphrasia FOR COLDS.
SIR, – Jackdaws remarks on Euphrasia (October 26th) were most interesting. I have not tried it for sight, but have kept the homoeopathic tincture in the house for years to have at hand in case of colds. Two or three doses of three drops in water have an almost magical effect on colds of the streaming variety – running at the eyes and nose, and sneezing.
Personally, I never allow a cold to get to that stage now, as a Camphor pill at the first indication of sore throat does the trick and nips it in the bud.
(MRS.) SOPHIA H.E. LANGMAID.
Cardiff.
[We have received so many letters asking for further information about the use of Euphrasia as an eye-lotion that we have obtained the following details from our correspondent: Euphrasia is a Homoeopathic preparation which can be obtained from any chemist.
The chemist should be told that it is to be used for the eyes, so that the proper strength be supplied. Three to six drops should be used in an eye-bath of tepid water two or three times a day. Euphrasia is also good for catarrh. It must be understood that we cannot take any responsibility for this advice. – ED.]”.
John oLondons Weekly, November 16th.
On October 26th, there was a leading article in the Journal worded as follows:.
“PASSING REMARKS.
EUPHRASY AND TRUE.
In our issue of September 21st, under the heading, Euphrasy and Rue, I printed and commented on a curious, not to say startling, letter from Mr. J. Mitchell, of Los Angeles, in which he related his experience of the herb, Euphrasia, or Euphrasy (the English Eyebright), as a cure or relief of weak eyes. He had made a chance discovery of its age-long reputation, which has largely though not perhaps justly – been dismissed as a superstition. Most superstitions are fractional truths.
And Mr. Mitchell, after trying Euphrasy, threw away his first pair of glasses, which had cost him L6, and, through me, denounced the entire oculist and optician business as a racket. As I disagreed with him I could afford to point out that old Culpepper, the botanist, anticipated him by three centuries when he wrote: If the herb was but as much used as it is neglected, it would half spoil the spectacle-makers trade..
Obviously, a fractional truth about Euphrasy would be worth finding out. I think it may be obtained a welcome and striking letter that I have now received from Euphrasia (Bournemouth). As her letter has documentary value I print it exactly as received. Euphrasia writes:
Forgive me for saying that your remarks about Euphrasia are not quite correct. I could not – as an old woman of eighty-six-read your delightful articles every week, if my eyesight were not more than fairly good, and this I attribute to the regular use of Euphrasia as an eye-lotion.
My husband, too, who died four years ago, at the age of eighty-seven, could read small print, without glasses, up to the end, and always used Euphrasia.
I could tell you of many similar cases, but, of course, Euphrasia would not cure organic disease of the eyes, and I have never heard of it as a remedy for catarrh.
Your Los Angeles correspondent could not, as you say, have had anything organically wrong with his eyes, and he really does more harm than good to the cause of Euphrasia by his exaggerated praise.
When you have been working specially hard at your desk, and your brain is weary, and your eyes dim, try a few drops of Euphrasia as an eye-bath, and you will acknowledge its beneficial action.
The old quacks made dishonest use of this, and other remedies, but – “Excellent herbs had our Fathers of old”, and, though “wonderful little they knew” – we, with our great knowledge, can still find virtue in many of their nostrums..
This personal and temperate report on the ancient Euphrasy, written in the mid-twentieth century, seems to me to be of great interest though the value of the remedy is not scientifically explained. I am preserving the real name of my correspondent, and her postal address.”.
Euphrasia is an exceedingly valuable remedy for many disorders, for it is excellent for watery eyes, burning and swelling of the lids and discharge of acrid matter, for a bad kind of head cold which is accompanied by burning lachrymation and by a bland discharge from the nose.
If the position is reversed, if the discharge from the nose is acrid and excoriated, and if the discharge from the eyes is bland, then Euphrasia is quite useless and the condition is promptly improved and cured by Allium cepa, the humble but extremely useful onion. If the homoeopathically prepared extract of onion cannot be obtained, then one squeezes a few drops of the juice from a raw onion, shakes it up in a little water and takes a few drops as needed, and the troublesome cold will rapidly disappear.
James Ellis Barker wrote a very large number of books, both under the name James Ellis Barker and under his real German name Otto Julius Eltzbacher, The Truth about Homœopathy; Rough Notes on Remedies with William Murray; Chronic Constipation; The Story of My Eyes; Miracles Of Healing and How They are Done; Good Health and Happiness; New Lives for Old: How to Cure the Incurable; My Testament of Healing; Cancer, the Surgeon and the Researcher; Cancer, how it is Caused, how it Can be Prevented with a foreward by William Arbuthnot Lane; Cancer and the Black Man etc.