Quinquennial Homoeopathic International Congress  
Transactions of the eighth congress : July 17 to 22, 1911 - Volume I
Section of materia medica and therapeutics 
Iberis Amara and Crataegus Oxyavantha: their differential uses in cardiac diseases 
 Cardiac 
 By Johan Murray Moore, M.D.  Edin., M.R. C.S.  Eng., F.R. G.S. , etc.  
 Ex-President British Homoeopathic Congress, 1908. 
 Iberis amara 
  A. Iberis Amara, called in common parlance the Bitter Candytuft, is a herbaceous 
annual plant, usually grown on chalky soils, and cultivated in gardens for its pretty white 
flowers which grow in clusters. It belongs to the Natural Order Cruciferae, an order 
which, besides the two mustards (Sinapis alba and nigra) yields to our Mat. Med. 
Cheiranthus, Cochlearia, Nasturtium, Raphanus and Thlaspi Bursa-pastoris. 
  A tincture is made from the crushed seeds. 
 In 1847, by a paper read to the Provincial medical and Surgical Association, Dr. 
Sylvester first called attention to the medicinal powers of Iberis. 
  Using the seeds, triturated with cream of tartar to conceal their bitter taste, Dr. Sylvester 
described his uniform success in the treatment of cases of asthma, bronchitis, dropsy, and 
more especially hypertrophy. His ten year's experience had convinced him that this drug 
had a specific action on the heart, as a sedative, but not displaying the retarding influence 
characteristic of Digitalis. Occasionally giddiness, vomiting, or diarrhoea were caused, in 
sensitive patients; but these inconvenient symptoms were transient. 
 Dr. Edwin M. Hale, our great prover, saw in Iberis a fruitful field of drug action, and 
instituted the provings which Allen has recorded in his fifth volume. 
 From three provers, two men and one woman, were elicited 150 distinct symptoms, of 
which twenty-one related to the heart and arterial circulation. 
 The leading symptoms may be thus summarised:- 
 General. 
 Loss of strength; trembling sensation throughout the whole body, especially the legs; is 
weak, nervous, and exhausted on rising, with nausea and dizziness; sleeplessness; restless 
night, with horrid dreams, etc. 
 Head. 
 Vertigo (in all three provers). Slight dizziness while in the upright position, much 
increased by stooping. Dizziness in back part of head, as if the occiput were turning 
round. Severe frontal headache, nausea, and loss of appetite. 
 Throat. 
 Dryness of fauces; hawking up of viscid, stringy mucus, choking sensations in throat. 
 Respiration. 
 Respirations more frequent and labouring; considerable dyspnoea, with stabbing pains 
through the heart. 
 Heart and Pulse. 
 A constant dull pain in the heart. Sharp pains through the cardiac region (compare 
symptoms 419 and 421 of Spigelia.) A peculiar symptom was NO. 94 (Sabin). "On 
turning on left side, a sharp sticking is felt, as if a needle were cross-wise in the 
ventricles, and pricked at each contraction." Symptom 100 is significant. Slight exertion, 
as rising from a chair, coughing or laughing, causing distressing palpitation, with increase 
of the dull pain, which is constantly felt at 10 a.m.  (102). Heart's action weak and 
fluttering at 11 a.m.  
 In all three proves there was a great increase of both heart and pulse-rate. In the woman, 
whose pulse was normally 65 to 70, it rose to 96, fifteen minutes after the first dose of the 
1x tincture, subsiding to 60 in seven hours. In the same prover we have: pulse 98, regular 
and full, fifteen minutes after second dose; great acceleration, irregular and jerking, with 
a peculiar thrill under the finger; after 0 tincture, pulse rose from 70 to 90, and shortly 
afterward rose to 100, and became irregular. 
 Prover No. 2 records: pulse 90, undulating, tremulous, twenty five minutes after the 1x 
tincture; thirty minutes after the 0 tincture, pulse 77, irregular, full; intermits irregularly, 
sometimes at every third, at other times every fourth, fifth or sixth, beat. There is 
intermission of the heart-beats, which every slight exertion aggravates. 
 Prover No. 2, who started taking Iberis with a touch of rheumatism in the left shoulder, 
experienced (Sympt. 110):  "Pain dull and heavy in left arm, commencing in tips of 
fingers, with tingling and numbness. Tingling and numbness commencing in fingers of 
left hand, and gradually extending up the left arm." 
 In all three provers Iberis increased the ventricular contractions of the heart for several 
hours, and this effect was confirmed by Dr. Gatchell's experiments on frogs in 1877. 
 A throat symptom was "Dryness of fauces; hawking up of viscid stringy mucus." 
 Stomach, abdomen and stool. 
 Loss of appetite, nausea and headache; sour eructations; fulness, oppression, tenderness 
over right hypochondrium; several thin, whitish, or clay-coloured stools passed in quick 
succession. Here we have an important resemblance to Digitalis. 
  On the urinary organs, this drug had no very marked effect : the female prover had, on 
the first day "frequent but scanty urination;" on the second day "urine excessive in 
quantity." 
 These provings clearly establish the claim of Iberis to be a cardiac remedy of value, but 
there is a need for their extension. 
 I am not aware of any later provings; but there is sufficient and increasing clinical 
evidence of its usefulness. 
 Case 1 
 In the year 1890, our eminent colleague, Dr. Proctor, had suffered for two years from 
debility of the heart, with distressing attacks of palpitations the sequelae of influenza. All 
ordinary heart-remedies failed to relieve him. All stimulants (except port wine) and 
smoking aggravated this cardiac weakness so much that they had to be given up. He took 
Iberis tincture (dose not stated) and in ten days it restored him to his normal state of 
health. 
 Case 2 
 Dr. Chakravanti, of India, in 1905, reported a case cured by Iberis 30. A railway clerk, 
aged 30, was visited Mach 13th, 1901. He was suffering from fever and severe pain in the 
heart, shooting across in the right arm, and into the scapula; he had constant dyspnoea, 
and fits of suffocation and fainting. He was obliged to lie perfectly still on his left side. 
 Auscultation disclosed the existence of endocarditis; a slight pericardial effusion; and a 
loud pre-systolic bruit. The pulse was irregular; there was a tremulous sensation 
throughout the whole body, and great prostration. No improvement having been derived 
from either Cactus or Arsenicum, Iberis 30 was administered on March 15th, with such 
immediate benefit that in two days the pericardial effusion had disappeared. On March 
25th the report read : "No signs of endocarditis; patient is convalescent." 
 Case 3 
 A lady patient of Dr. Proctor's, aged about 43, after a series of illnesses, began to suffer 
from angina pectoris. When she consulted Dr. Proctor she had endured this painful 
complaint for two years. Walking fast or going upstairs brought on an attack. She found 
herself obliged to take chlorodyne as a palliative. Dr. Proctor gave her Iberis tincture, one 
drop three times a day, with the most brilliant results. She "felt better after the second 
dose." 
 Case 4 
 Without citing any individual case, a writer in the Hahnemannian Monthly, December 
1995, from actual experience, recommends Iberis 1x in cases of cardiac dilatation where 
severe attacks of dyspnoea come on about 2 a.m. , the patient being awakened by 
palpitation of the heart without pain. A tickling in the larynx follows; then the throat and 
trachea are filled with mucus which is expectorated as a white frothy sputum.  The cough 
causes redness of the face. Dyspnoea lasts for an hour or two with profuse sweating of 
the whole body and coldness of hands and legs. The patient cannot lie down but sits up, 
slightly bent forward. Besides dilatation there is some hypertrophy, because the heart's 
action seems strong and tumultuous, as shown by free passage of urine, free from 
albumen. 
 Thus Iberis is distinctly suitable for attacks of nocturnal dyspnoea. 
 Case 5 
 Kopp, of Greenwich, N.S.  Wales, asserts that he has found this drug beneficial in five 
varieties of vertigo, viz., those symptoms numbered 15, 16, 17, 18, 23 in Allen-they are 
too long to enumerate-but as one form of this vertigo, a purely pathogenetic product, is 
likely to be a key-note for Iberis, I will quote Symptom 15 in full. 
 "Dizziness in back part of the head, or feeling as if the occiput were turning round." 
  This being a cerebellar rather than a cerebral vertigo, I suggest that Iberis would relieve 
the occipital headache which troubles some patients for a long time after the inhalation of 
chloroform; and also that headache with giddiness accompanying sea-sickness, which 
persists after the victim to mal-de-mer has emptied the stomach. 
 It may be taken as a fact that Iberis is pathogenetic doses, accelerates a normal pulse, but 
in homoeopathic doses retards, slows down gradually, an abnormally quick pulse in 
disease. 
 Although I have no case of my own to quote as treated throughout by this medicine, yet I 
value it highly, and carry it in my pocket-case, because I have never failed to relieve 
tachycardia with it (usually in the 1x), whether this condition arose from valvular lesion, 
or from functional derangement. As it slows down a too rapid pulse without weakening 
the heart-muscle, I find it a useful substitute for Digitalis or Strophanthus. 
  Considering that we have had the provings of Iberis on record for thirty-four years, we 
ought to have more clinical evidence of its usefulness. Fresh provings will reveal more of 
its qualities as a heart remedy, and confirm, reverse, or modify those which I now have 
brought before you. 
 Iberis may be classed and compared with Cactus, Crataegus, Digitalis, Naja and 
Spigelia. 
 Crataegus oxyacantha 
  . Crategus Oxyacantha is the well-known Hawthorn, a characteristic English plant. 
Botanically, it belongs to the Sub-Order Pomeae, of the Natural Order Rosaceae. (See 
footnote-White Hawthorn.). 
 A tincture is made from the fresh ripe berries, called "haws." 
 One of the most ancient wild shrubs in Britain, and six times mentioned by Shakespeare, 
no medicinal qualities were ascribed to the hawthorn, until a certain Irish doctor, Dr. 
Green, of Ennis, took it up, we know not from what source, as a remedy for heart disease. 
His success was such as to spread his fame throughout Ireland. He kept the name of the 
drug secret, and after his demise in 1893, his daughter revealed it as the berries of the 
hawthorn. 
 Crataegus was adopted by the allopaths as remedy in heart disease, chiefly as the result 
of a remarkable paper contributed to the New York Medical Journal, October 10th, 1896, 
by Dr. M.C.  Jennings, in which he described his uniform success in forty-three cases of 
serious, often nearly moribund, cardiac disease. 
 Soon the homoeopaths took it up, clinically, and I am able to adduce much more 
evidence of its power in this sphere than is possible in the case of Iberis. The first volume 
of Clarke's Materia Medica gives a good summary of what was then known of Crataegus; 
but there was no pathogenesy, except the following observations of Dr. T.C.  Duncan :  
"In my proving of this drug it produced a flurried feeling due, I thought, to the rapid 
action of the stimulated heart. One prover, a nervous lady medical student, gives to-day 
in her report, 'a feeling of quiet calmness, mentally.' This is a secondary effect, for it was 
preceded by 'an unusual rush of blood to the head, with a confused feeling.'" 
 Clarke quotes three illustrative cases, and constructs his "Symptoms" upon these, 
incorporating the above rather trivial observation of Duncan. 
 But Dr. Claud A. Burrett, in 1908, organized a test-proving at the University of 
Michigan, which has so enlarged our knowledge of Crataegus, as to make our 
employment of it more definite-though still there is much to be discovered. 
 Two healthy and robust young men, aged 21 and 23 respectively, proved Crataegus by 
taking the 3x dilution for four days, the 2x for two days and during the remaining eight 
days of the experiment, from 5 to 40 drops of the mother tincture. While taking the 3x 
and 2x dilutions no symptoms appeared. But on the evening of the administration, of 5 
drop doses of the 0 tincture, prover No. 2 noticed attacks of dizziness lasting a few 
minutes, while the pulse-rate became lower, without change in its character, as shown by 
the sphygmograph. 
 Prover No. I felt no dizziness, but the pulse became slower and firmer. The normal 
pulse-rate in No. I prover was 84, and in No. 2, 88.  Under the larger doses of the 0 
tincture the pulse declined to 56, and became much weaker. At this point both provers 
suffered from air hunger, and had the windows opened, though it was winter (December). 
 Dr. Burrett's commentary on the entire experiment is as follow:- The action of Crataegus 
is exerted almost entirely upon the heart-muscle, and may be compared with Digitalis, 
Strophanthus and Adonis vernalis. The action of Crataegus is less powerful than that of 
Dig. Or Stroph., and much more prolonged than that of Adonis, which exerts its action 
through the heart-nerves. It would seem to be best indicated in subacute or chronic heart 
cases where the effect upon the heart muscle is desired. 
 The following cases carefully selected from our journals, slow how valuable this remedy 
is in cardiac and arterial disease, even while we do not possess a complete pathogenesy. 
 Case illustrative of the action of Crataegus Oxyacantha 
 Dr. Richard Hughes in his latest work, speaks well of Crataegus as having "great power 
in restoring failing compensation," and as "able to do, in five-drop doses, all that Digitalis 
in much larger doses can accomplish." 
 Case 1 
 In the medical era of 1901, Dr. Halbert reported the case of a youth aged 20, who 
suffered from congenital (?) valvular disease, aggravated by dilatation, brought on by 
cycling up-hill, and from imperfect compensatory hypertrophy. In the summer of 1900, 
Dr. Halbert found him in a most critical condition. The praecordium was bulging; the 
apex beat appeared at the border of the sixth rib; the right heart was greatly enlarged; the 
dyspnoea was terrible; both aortic and mitral regurgitation existed; and cyanosis was 
evident. Strychnia, Digitalis and every remedy and adjuvant I could think of having been 
used with only temporary benefit, I gave Crataegus, five drops for a dose, gradually 
increased to eight drops, four times a day. At the end of a fortnight the improvement was 
quite pronounced. The cardiac muscle was steadily strengthening, and affording the 
needed compensation. An unfortunate attack of pneumonia supervened, whereby his life 
was nearly lost, but he survived, and again Crat. Was given, and kept up for some weeks. 
 He recovered; went into the country for change of air; and when Dr. Halbert met him in 
town, he said that "he was all right, and attending to business." 
 In two other cases or organic valvular lesion, one mitral and one aortic, Dr. Halbert 
records that Crataegus in material doses restored the heart to a workable and even 
comfortable condition. 
 Case 2 
 Dr. Schleged reported in the Allgemeine Homoöpathische Zeitung, 1906, a complicated 
case, in which Crataegus, besides quickly tranquillising the heart, relieved bronchial 
asthma, and removed secondary albuminuria. 
 Remarks 
 Many other striking cases can be found in our Journals. 
 This new remedy was first brought under the notice of our colleagues at the British 
Homoeopathic Congress of 1901, which met at Liverpool. During the discussion of Dr. 
H. Nankivell's paper on "Cardiac Debility," Drs. Dyce Brown and E. M. Madden spoke 
highly of Crataegus, which they had used with constant success. 
 Dr. Brown mentioned the case of a lady of 70, who had a dilated heart, with both mitral 
and aortic bruits. Two weeks of Crataegus improved all the morbid conditions; and a 
month more of the medicine completely removed all the symptoms. The heart regained it 
normal size and position. 
 It is evident that both allopath and homoeopath have used Crat. For the same cardiac 
ailments, and with the same success. The typical dose seems to be 5drops of the 0 
tincture. I, however, get equally good results from the first decimal. The therapeusis of 
Crat.  From actual clinical experience, is as follows, derived from various competent 
observers: 
 Jennings (allopath), after a study of 43 cases, writes :  "After a few days' use of Crat., the 
cardiac impulse is greatly strengthened, and yields that low soft tone so characteristic of 
the (normal) systole, as can be shown by the Cardiograph. The entire central nervous 
system is favourably influenced; appetite increases; assimilation and nutrition improve 
showing an influence over the solar plexus. . . A sense of quietude and well-being rests 
upon the patient who, before its use, was cross, melancholic and irritable." He adds a 
limitation : "I doubt if it is indicated in fatty enlargement of the heart." 
 Reilly (allopath) in an article in the American Medical Association Journal, July, 1910, 
states that his most successful use of Crat. was in cardiac neuroses. 
 He remarks that Crat. is better borne (given in the preparations of fluid extract or 
tincture) then Digitalis, as it causes less disturbance of the digestion.  "Crataegus is a mild 
cardiac tonic without any decided diuretic action, and one which does not raise blood-
pressure. Its chief value is where the heart is in a weak, irritable condition, following 
influenza, or in neurasthenia, with a marked arrhythmia of the respiratory type." 
 Our colleague, Dr. Baltzer, of Stettin, Prussia, writes in the Berliner Homoöpathische 
Zeitschrift, July, 1910, of this remedy thus: 
 "With Crataegus, when it is indicated, we generally have dilatation of the heart. I have 
given it in many cases with good results, and also in diabetes mellitus, where the 
dilatation of the heart gave the patient no special inconvenience...It is one of four best 
remedies in myocardiac processes, having their origin in influenza, typhus and diphtheria. 
I have not been hitherto able to find any characteristic symptoms for Crataegus." 
 Written ten years later our eminent colleague, Dr. Bernard Arnulphy's estimate of Crat. 
agrees with Baltzer's. In his excellent article in the French Homoeopathic Review, 
Arnulphy, comparing Crat. with Naja, writes:  "Crataegus does great service in every 
form of myocarditis, and exhibits an undeniably tonic action, quiet, moderate, and non-
cumulative, on the muscular fibres of the heart; equally suiting both aortic and mitral 
cases. The insomnia of aortic sufferers is generally helped by Crataegus...Whereas, Naja 
tripudians exhibits its powers in chronic endocarditis of the mitral type, keeping up the 
force of the cardiac muscle; prolonging compensation; and preventing visceral 
engorgement. Crataegus has no influence over the endocardium." 
 Dr. Jos. Clements, in 1906, made a striking suggestion about the use of Crat. in arterial 
degeneration, based upon his experiments. He writes : "Crataegus has a solvent power 
upon crustaceous and calcareous deposits in the lumen of the arteries resembling the 
effect of Iodide of Potassium on the nodes of syphilis; therefore it might prevent the 
progress of arterio-sclerosis in old people." 
 In my own practice I employ Crat. both to strengthen a feebly acting heart, and to 
quieten an irritable heart, in persons whose sensitiveness to drugs render it inadvisable to 
use Digitalis or Strophanthus. 
  I often give Crat. as a change from Cactus or Naja, when the action of either has seemed 
to have exhausted itself. Iberis and Crataegus are now in my pocket-case, and I use them 
with increasing frequency. 
 There is a resemblance between the medicinal powers of these two remedies. But their 
therapeutic areas are not co-terminous. It remains for further provings, and more clinical 
records, to precisely define them. 
 The cases brought forward in this paper, which, I believe, summarise our present 
knowledge of Crataegus, show that this new remedy should be classed with Convallaria, 
Iberis, Naja, Strophanthus and Adonis vernalis. To these must be added Amygdala amara, 
Laurocerasus, Prunus Virginia and Hydrocyanic acid, if, as some think, this plant owes 
its medicinal properties to the prussic acid contained in it. 
 Summary of cases treated by Iberis Amara 
 Sex.  Age.  Nature or Disease.  Result. 
 Male 60 Cardiac debility after influenza---Cure. 
 Male 30 Angina, endocarditis, pericardial effusion Cure. 
 Female 43 Angina pectoris---Cure. 
 Both sexes Cardiac dilatation, with nocturnal attacks of dyspnoea 
 Both sexes Vertigo, of five different kinds (see Allen's Encyclopaedia, Vol. V., p. 62). 
Recommended in Tachycardia, etc. 
 Summary of recorded cases treated by Crataegus Oxyacantha 
 Sex. Age.  Nature or Disease.  Result. 
 Male 38 Dilatation, hypertrophy of heart, aortic and mitral regurgitation-Cure. 
 Male 20 Dilatation, aortic and mitral regurgitation Cure. 
 Female 12 Collapse of heart in third week of typhoid Cure. 
 Female 72 Mitral stenosis, bronchial asthma, chronic nephritis------Recovery. 
 Male 50 Mitral regurgitation, myocardiac degeneration, prostration--- Relief. 
 Male 60 True angina pectoris-Permanent Relief. 
 Male 52 Cardiac debility after influenza-Cure. 
 Male 79 Mitral valvular lesion, oedema, threatened collapse------Recovery. 
 Female d20 Mitral stenosis, anasarca, collapse, delivery of 6 mo. Foetus ---Relief. 
 Female 70 Dilated heart, with mitral and aortic bruits Cure. 
 Female 45 Cardiac hypertrophy; spinal hyperaemia; Pseudo-angina-----Relief. 
 [White Hawthorn :Occasional reports are read declaring that no benefit was derived from 
the exhibition of Crataegus. May this have been when the drug was made from the berry 
of the wrong variety of Hawthorn? 
 "The American Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia," Eight Edition, says the variety is the 
White Hawthorn or Quickset! Is this Quickset not the variety having a single row of 
white petals? 
 It was either Dr. J. Compton Burnett or the late Dr. Alfred Health, Chemist, of Ebury 
Street, S. W., told me that the drug must be made from the White Hawthorn, and to this 
end the tree should be marked when in flower, to avoid confusion and perhaps grave 
mistake when gathering ripe berries later. Perhaps the profession will fix the exact variety 
which is so potent in Heart Therapeutics.-Editor].