Category: Materia Medica

Causticum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 58 of 180
Source pages 1216–1237 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Causticum is a very searching medicine, suitable in old, broken down constitutions, suffering from chronic diseases.

Only occasionally is it indicated in acute diseases. Its complaints are such as are progressive, slow, and accompanying a declining state of the economy.

Muscular power: Gradual decrease of muscular power, a paralysis. Paralysis of the oesophagus, paralysis of the throat, such as occurs after diphtheria; paralysis of the upper eyelids; paralysis of the bladder; paralysis of the limbs, of the lower limbs; great lassitude, muscular relaxation, indescribable fatigue and heaviness of the body. And there is a tremulousness, a quivering, jerking, twitching of the muscles, twitching in sleep.

Tendons: The next most striking feature is found in the tendons, which become shortened, resulting in a temporary or permanent contracture, and the limb is drawn up.

Tendons of the forearms contract, and there is gradually increasing flexion. Sometimes a whole muscle will harden and shorten, so that it can be felt by the hand as a hard ridge. Contractures of muscles and tendons.

Joints: Closely related to this is a rheumatic state of the tendons and ligaments about the joints, sometimes with swelling, but always with pain and ending in a shrivelling of the joint, a tightening up of the joint so that it becomes ankylosed.

Great stiffness of the joints, and while this is going on the patient is growing weaker, is running into a state of melancholy, of hopelessness, anxiety and fear.

Constantly present in his mind is the hopelessness and a feeling that something is hanging over him, that something is going to happen. These are general features of Causticum. They all go to make up one picture, they are inseparable.

Hysteria: Another kind of progressive trouble in Causticum is hysteria. Gradually increasing hysteria. Hysterical cramping. The woman loses all control of herself and says foolish things.

Her nervous system becomes extremely sensitive to noise, touch, excitement or anything unusual. Starting from the slightest noise; starting in sleep; twitching and jerking; the child is easily startled, or acts as if startled without cause.

Rheumatic diathesis: The paralytic weakness is associated with the rheumatic diathesis. The rheumatic states are peculiar. The patient himself can endure neither heat nor cold. They both aggravate his rheumatic conditions, his nervous conditions and himself in general. His pains are ameliorated by heat, but they are aggravated in dry weather.

Great deformity of the joints; they are enlarged, soft and infiltrated, always worse in dry weather; more pains and aches during dry weather. Rheumatism that affects both the muscles and the joints. This patient is also aggravated by exposure to cold, dry winds. Many an individual who has gone from the low lands of the East up into Colorado will come down with rheumatism from the cold, dry winds.

Let such a patient as I have described take a ride in the cold lake wind and he will have paralysis of the side of the face exposed to the wind. A long drive with the east wind coming against the face.

The next day that side of the face will be paralyzed. Such a paralysis will almost always recover under Causticum.

Reading, tearing, paralytic pains; pains that, benumb; pains that fairly take the life out of him, they are so severe. And they are likely to remain in one place for a long time. Causticum has often greatly mitigated the lightning-like pains of locomotor ataxia.

Now, with all these sufferings the patient is slowly growing weaker, till at length he can no longer walk, he can no longer sit up, he is so tired and weak that he must lie down. He is tired in body and mind. It is a paralytic fatigue.

Convulsive symptoms. Cramps, now here, now there. If frightened he is almost sure to have some form of convulsive condition, The woman with tendency to hysteria will have hysterics from fright; nervous girls that are more inclined to chorea, will start with jerking of muscles and will keep it up day and night. Chorea even at night. Localized chorea, jerking of single parts, chorea of the tongue or of one side of the face.

Epilepsy in young persons at the age of puberty, from fright, from, being chilled or exposed to some great change in the weather. Epilepsy, chorea, paralysis, hysteria worse during menses. We see that Causticum is a deep medicine.

Worse from exposure to cold, dry wind. It also has rheumatic complaints aggravated in the warm, damp days, in wet weather, but this is not so striking.

Any one of the complaints that I have mentioned may be brought on by bathing in cold water. A long, dry, cold spell will aggravate the rheumatic troubles, getting wet or becoming chilled by bathing will start them.

Insanity: Causticum has cured insanity; not acute mania with violent delirium, but mental aberration of the passive kind, where the brain has become tired. The constitution has been broken down with long suffering and much trouble, and finally the mind is in confusion.

At first the patient recognizes his inability to do anything and then comes this foreboding that something is going to happen. He is unable to think, and consequently unable to carry on his business. He is going into imbecility. Full of timorous fancies.

“Timorous anxiety,” overwhelmed with fearful fancies.

At every turn there is fear that something is going to happen. Fear of death, fear that something will happen to his family. Always anticipating some dreadful event. That is a striking feature of the Causticum mental state. It is found in old, broken down mental cases, after prolonged anxiety; after a prolonged struggle of some sort.

Anxiety before falling asleep. In addition to this, the Causticum patient lacks balance. Everything excites him. The more he thinks about his complaints, the worse they become. Mental and other ailments from long-lasting grief and sorrow. The injurious effects of fear and prolonged vexation. Tired from vexations of business.

Eruptions: The suppression of eruptions is apt to bring out mental symptoms. Mental exhaustion, hopelessness, despair, appearing after the suppression of an eruption with zinc ointment. He was fairly well while he had the eruption, but when it disappeared his mind gave out.

Eruptions on the side of the head and face, and extending over the whole head. Thick, crusty eruptions covering the whole occiput. When these eruptions are suppressed in children, chorea is apt to follow. In the adult there will be trembling, paralytic weakness and the mental state, sometimes pains in the nerves.

Headaches: The driving in of a facial eruption will frequently result in facial paralysis. The healing of an old ulcer with stimulating lotions and ointments will have a similar result. Then he also suffers from violent headaches, congestive, pulsating headaches; violent, stitches in the head, worse in the evening.

But the headaches are, as a rule, nondescript; only occasion do we find a Causticum headache standing out by itself. It will usually be associated with rheumatic and gouty conditions which also affect the scalp. The scalp contracts and tightens up in places like the contractures in other parts. Rheumatic headaches; sometimes the pain is so severe as to cause nausea, and vomiting. Blinding headaches followed by paralysis.

Torticollis. The head is sometimes drawn to one side by the shortening of the muscles of the neck. Causticum is a curative remedy in this shortening of the tendons and muscles.

Eyes: Causticum is rich in eye symptoms. Very often the patient says that the eyelids feel so heavy that he can hardly hold them up. This gradually increases until it becomes an actual paralysis. Sometimes there is the appearance of a veil before the eyes; foggy vision.

Flickering before the eyes. Air seems full of little black insects. Then, again, large black or green spots are seen. After looking at the light a green spot appears and remains in the field of vision for a long time. Diplopia.

And the vision gradually grows weaker until it is lost. Paralysis of the optic nerve. Lachrymation, tears acrid, burning; ulceration, copious discharges from the eyes, agglutination of the lids, paralysis of the eye muscles.

Causticum cures scrofulous ophthalmia with ulceration of the cornea; chronic, purulent ophthalmia of psoric origin. The cornea is covered with little veins.

Warts: Another very strong feature of this medicine is its tendency to grow warts. Warts on the face, on the tip of the nose, on the ends of the fingers, on the hands.

Hard, dry, horny warts come out on various parts of the body.

It is natural feature of this remedy to produce copious, thick, tough, gluey discharges from mucous membranes.

Ear and nose: The catarrhal troubles creep up the Eustachian tube, from the nose and throat into the car, resulting in roarings, cracking noises and reverberations in the ear. There is great accumulation of car wax; deafness of catarrhal origin and deafness from paralysis of the auditory nerve. Severe, dragging pains in the ear.

The nasal catarrh is very troublesome. Old, atrophic catarrh with accumulation of crusts throughout the whole nasal cavity; post-nasal catarrh with ulcerations, granulations and copious, thick, yellow or yellowish-green discharge; nose-bled; frequent attacks of acrid, watery coryza. Much itching of the nose. A wart grows upon the tip of the nose.

Face and mouth: The pains in the face are violent. Neuralgic pains from exposure to cold. These pains often accompany the facial paralysis. Tearing pains in the face, stitching pains, pains of a rheumatic character.

Ulcerations about the mouth and nose. Fissures about the lips, the wings of the nose and the corners of the eyes. Fissures seem to form upon the least provocation. Fissures of the anus, of the skin about the joints. Old cases of salt rheum with fissures in the bends of the joints. Fistulous openings with indurated walls.

The gums become scorbutic and settle away from the teeth; bleeding and ulceration of the gums. Violent, tearing pains in the roots of the teeth from riding in the wind. Old rheumatic subjects suffer all through every dry spell with toothache.

Stitching, tearing, pulsating pains in the teeth; even in the sound teeth on drawing in cold air. Frequently recurring abscesses of the gums. Putrid sour or bitter taste in the mouth.

When the paralytic condition affects the tongue then we have stammering. There is also the condition of complete paralysis of both the pharynx and oesophagus. Hence Causticum is useful in the results of diphtheria when it has been maltreated or when the remedy has not been sufficient to cure the disease.

The food goes down the wrong way or enters the larynx or the post-nares. Paralysis of the organs of speech, paralysis of the tongue, awkward at talking, awkward at chewing; bites the tongue and cheeks while chewing. Post-diphtheritic paralysis is a serious condition and only a few remedies can cure- it.

Causticum is one of them. Lachesis and Cocculus are also important. Dryness of the mouth and throat; rawness of the throat; must swallow constantly on account of a sensation of fullness in the throat, a nervous feeling in the throat. This is often a forerunner of paralysis. The Staphysagria patient when excited will keep up a constant swallowing and this goes on until it becomes a source of great annoyance.

Burning in the throat; jerking in the throat; constantly scraping thick, tough mucus from the larynx. Study the sounds that patients make in order to ascertain where the mucus comes from. The presence of hoarseness shows that the trouble is in the larynx.

Desires and aversions, stomach: The Causticum patient sits down to the table hungry, but on seeing the food his appetite vanishes. The thought, sight or smell of food takes away the appetite. This is a common symptom in the pregnant woman.

Although hungry, on sitting down at the table, she cannot eat. Kali carbonicum has an empty, all-gone feeling in the stomach, with aversion to food. China has canine hunger, but loathes the sight of food.

Thirst after eating; thirst for cool drinks with aversion to water desire for beer, smoked meats, pungent things, aversion to sweet things and delicacies. Most remedies that have loss of appetite have desire for, sweet things, pastry, etc. The symptoms of thirst with aversion to drinking is very much like Lachesis.

The two run very closely together in the paralytic condition of the throat. There is a queer sensation in the stomach as if lime were slaking there. Trembling in the stomach; burning. Bread causes a sensation of heaviness and pressure, coffee seems to aggravate all the symptoms of the stomach, but a swallow of cold water relieves.

Many symptoms in this remedy are made better by a swallow of water. The violent spasmodic cough may be stopped at once by a drink of cold water. Cold water seems to tone up the paralytic condition. Warm water applied to the hands brings on pains in these old sensitive spinal conditions. Cold washing is their only relief.

Causticum has belching, nausea, vomiting, distension and violent pains in the stomach. Pinching colic.

Rectum: In the rectum there is the same tendency to paralytic weakness that is found in other parts of the body. It is inactive and fills up with hard faeces, which pass involuntarily and unnoticed. Aloe has involuntary dropping of little, hard balls, especially in children. Even when old enough to understand about such things, they will pass little balls unnoticed.

On account of the paralytic condition the stool passes with less straining while the patient is standing. Retention of urine except when standing; unable to pass it in any other position is Sarsaparilla. Constipation, frequent, unsuccessful urging to stool. The stool is tough and shining, and is passed with great difficulty and exertion.

Fissures in the anus; itching and stitching in the rectum, excessive itching day and night; hemorrhoids, pulsating in the perineum I fissures and hemorrhoids pulsate and burn like fire.

The hemorrhoids become infiltrated and hardened.

Bladder: This remedy has two kinds of paralysis of the bladder, one affecting the muscles of expulsion and the urine is retained, and the other center ing upon the sphincter vesicae, and then the urine is passed involuntarily.

“He urinates so easily that he is not sensible of the stream and scarcely believes, in the dark, that he is urinating, until he makes sure by sense of touch.”

Causticum is unconscious of the stream as it passes.

It is a very useful remedy in children that wet the bed. Especially is it a wonderful remedy in the woman. The urine escapes involuntarily when coughing. Retention of urine in the woman. Retention after labor.

Paralysis of the bladder. A woman who is too greatly embarrassed to pass through a crowd of observing men to the closet at the end of a railroad car, at the end of the journey finds that she is unable to pass the urine.

Retention of urine from straining the muscles of the bladder. If the patient is chilled at the time the remedy may be Rhus.

Rhus and Causticum are the two great remedies for paralytic weakness of muscles from being overstrained, or from being overstrained and chilled. Great weakness at the time of the menses.

Menstruation: Anxious dreams before menstruation; melancholy; cramp-like spasms; pains in the back. The woman suffers from many annoyances during menstruation just about the time for the flow to start violent cramp-like pains come on. In a woman who is nursing a child the milk almost disappears in consequence of fatigue, night watching and anxiety. The nipples get sore and crack, another instance of the tendency to form fissures.

Voice: The Causticum patient has trouble with the voice. You remember, when we were going over the symptoms of Carbo vegetabilis, I told you that the hoarseness was worse in the evening. Now observe that the hoarseness of Causticum is worse in the morning.

He gets up in the morning with a hoarse voice; if it is an ordinary case, after moving about and expectorating a little mucus, it is better. Sudden loss of voice from paralysis of the vocal cord.

It sometimes begins with the morning aggravation, gradually increasing until it lasts all day and all night.

Cough: The Causticum cough is a hard cough and racks the whole body. The chest seems full of mucus and he feels if only he could cough a little deeper he could get it up, and he struggles and coughs until exhausted or until he finds out that a drink of cold water will relieve. But it must be ice cold.

The cough is hollow, it sounds as if he were coughing into a barrel. It is relieved by expectoration if it can only get deep enough to reach the mucus. Sometimes such a cough precedes quick consumption. It is a deep-acting medicine; it cures phthisis, especially mucous phthisis or quick consumption.

“Cough with a sensation as if the patient could not cough deep enough to start the mucus; produced by tickling, accompanied by rawness. Cough wakens her from sleep in the evening and morning.

Cough relieved by a swallow of cold water. Cough worse by bending forward. Continual, annoy ing cough; with each cough escape of urine.”

Influenza with tired aching of the limbs as if they had been beaten.

“Whooping cough in the catarrhal stage.”

Great soreness and tightness of the chest, oppression of the chest it feels as if a load were upon it. It seems to be filling up with mucus, and the patient coughs until he raises a mouthful and then he feels a little better for a time. Pale as death, covered with sweat.

Back: There are many symptoms in the back. Pain and stiffness; stiffness on rising from a seat. Stiffness in the limbs, through the hips and in the back, so that he rises up from sitting or the recumbent posture with great difficulty.

In most cases the pains and aches are ameliorated by the warmth of the bed and by applied heat. Only the pains in the fingers are sometimes brought on by heat.

Crotalus Horridus (Rattlesnake)
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 74 of 180
Source pages 1454–1472 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Aspect: The first impression would be to rebel against the use of such substances as Crotalus, Lachesis, Apis and other animal poisons, and it is true that the lay mind must look with something like horror upon their administration; but when they are properly used and when we consider the dreadfulness of the necessity demanding them, and also when we have ascertained that there can be no substitute when demanded, and again that they are potentized and changed until they are perfectly pure, because reduced to a state of simple substance, the horror passes away from the mind.

It is true that the diseases that call for the use of such substances as Crotalus are very grave. When at the bedside of a Crotalus patient one feels that death is very near, the subject is horrible to look upon, and the mother in regard to her child, or the husband, would immediately say,

“Doctor, use anything in order to save the life; resort to anything in order to heal this sick one.”

The symptoms are peculiar in Crotalus. The remedy stands out by itself. There can be no substitute for it, as there is no other remedy, taken as a whole, that looks it.

The other snake poisons form the nearest resemblance, but this one is the most dreadful of all, excepting perhaps, the Ancistrodon contortrix (Copperhead).

In the case of snake bites we get the most dire effects; we see death itself, we see the ending after a very rapid course, the very highest type of zymosis. These snake poisons are supposed to be cyanhydrates of soda and other salts.

It is known that alcohol is the natural solvent of the cyanhydrates, and because of this alcohol has been used in great quantities in snake bites, and it has frequently prolonged and even saved life. If he lives through the violent attack he goes on forever manifesting the chronic effects, and from these we have collected symptoms.

Dogs that have been bitten manifested the chronic effects of rattlesnake bite, and in them a peculiar periodicity has been manifested, viz., every spring as the cold weather subsides and the warm days begin

I once had the privilege of tracing up a dog that had been bitten by the Cenchris and had survived. It was bitten in the region of the neck, and in that region a large abscess formed every spring as long as that dog lived, until old age, when he died from that disease. The periodicity in the snake poisons is related to the spring, to the coming on of the warm weather.

Another marked general feature in Crotalus, as in most of the other Ophidians, is that the patient sleeps into the aggravation.

The poison of the Crotalus horridus, in its earliest manifestations, is like unto the zymotic changes that we find in scarlet fever, in diphtheria, in typhoid and low forms of blood poisoning, those cases that come on with great rapidity, breaking down of the blood, relaxation of the blood vessels, bleeding from all of the orifices of the body, rapidly increasing unconsciousness like one intoxicated and besotted in appearance.

Prostration: A mental and physical prostration that is almost paralytic in character. Scarlet fever when it becomes putrid; typhoid when it becomes putrid, diphtheria with much bleeding and putridity. The body appears mottled, blue intermingled with yellow jaundice comes on with astonishing quickness, and the eyes become yellow, and the skin becomes yellow and mottled. Blue in spots. Black and blue spots as if bruised, intermingled with yellow. After hemorrhages the skin becomes extremely anemic.

It is yellow, pale, bloodless. The body looks like wax. Hemorrhage from the ears, eyes, nose, lungs, from the mucous membranes everywhere, from the bowels, from the uterus, A haemorrhagic constitution.

Crotalus is indicated in disease of the very lowest, the most putrid type, coming on with unusual rapidity, reaching that putrid state in an unusually short time. One who has been poisoned rapidly sinks into, this besotted, benumbed. putrid, semi-conscious state. There is a feeling as if death were coming over him. As the blood oozes out it becomes black, It is sometimes fluid.

An awful state of nervousness prevails. Trembling of the limbs, tremulous weakness. On protruding the tongue it comes out quivering. Tired by the slightest exertion. Sudden prostration of the vital powers. A paralytic weakness prevails throughout.

Twitching of the muscles, trembling of the limbs. Sliding down in bed occurs in the typhoid conditions where this remedy has proved of benefit, the forms of yellow fever with great prostration. This species of yellow fever has been cured by this remedy. Convulsions and paralysis. It has twitching of muscles something like chorea, trembling, localized spasms, hysterical manifestations.

Mind: The mental symptoms are well worth examining. The low form of delirium, muttering, talking to himself is a peculiar form of loquacity. It differs somewhat from Lachesis. Both have loquacity.

The Lach. loquacity is so rapid that if anyone in the room commences to tell something the patient will take it up and finish the story, although he has never heard anything about it, so active is his mind. No one is permitted to finish a story in the presence of a Lach. patient. One will commence to tell something. He will say,

“Oh, yes; I understand it and he will go off on another line and finish up with something entirely different.

Crotalus does that, too, but Crotalus will take it up and mumble and stumble over his words in a clumsy manner.

It is a low passive state like intoxication; in Lach. it is wild excitement.

“Delirium with languor, drowsiness, stupor.”

That tells it.

“Loquacious delirium with desire to escape from bed.”

It is passive, however. His motions are slow.

“Muttering delirium of typhus.

Sadness.”

His thoughts dwell on death continually.

“Excessive sensitiveness.

Moved to tears by reading.

Melancholy with timidity, fear.

Anxious and pale, with cold sweat.

Irritable, cross, infuriated by least annoyance.”

On motion there is vertigo, dizziness. On keeping still there is pain. On going to sleep there is pain, and he is roused by violent pain. The longer he sleeps the more severe that pain in the head.

Sleep: He sleeps into his symptoms. All the snake poisons more or less sleep into troubles. The head troubles come on after sleep. He sleeps into headache. The longer he sleeps the harder are the headaches.

Head: The headache is so hard in the back of the head that it is almost impossible to raise it from the pillow. The muscles become so tired he has to take hold of it with his hands. This belongs also to Lach. A congestive headache with waxy face, yellow, purple, mottled face, as if there had been bruises.

“Headache extending into the eyes.

Bilious headache every few days.”

Severe sick headache, together with dizziness, throbbing in the top of the head. Dull, pulsating headaches. Dull, heavy, throbbing, occipital headaches or the whole head is in a state of congestion. He is confused and dazed. Head feels too large.

Head feels full, feels as if it would burst. Headaches that come on in waves as if they came up the back, a surging of blood upwards, an orgasm described as if the blood rushed upwards.

Headache with surging in waves and excited by motion or jar, by turning over in bed, by rising up in bed, or by lying down. Change of position will cause this surging. In Lach. it is described, and I have seen it verified, as beginning away down in the spine and surging upward coincident with the pulse.

Eyes: Hemorrhage from the eyes. Yellow appearance of the eyes.

“Blood exudes from the eye, burning in eyes; redness with lachrymation.”

Pressure in the eyes as if the eyes would be pushed out from the head. Paralysis of the upper lids. Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the lids.

Ears: Surging in the ears.

“Sensitive to noises.”

Dull aching and throbbing in the ears. Foetid, copious, yellow, offensive, bloody discharges from the ears. Blood oozing from the ears in drops in zymotic diseases, low forms of scarlet fever, or of diphtheria where there is oozing from the eyes and ears, and copious bleeding from the nose.

The nose is the most common organ to bleed in zymotic diseases. The rush of blood seems to get relief from bleeding from the nose. In this medicine the congestion to the head is violent with bleeding from the nose. It has cured all forms of foetid discharge. Horrible, foetid, putrid discharges from the nose. Ozoena.

Inflammation of the parotid gland. Blueness and discoloration of the face. Yellow appearance of the face, a marked condition of jaundice. In girls who appear waxy or anemic, yellowish green, have for a long time missed the menstrual period and break out in pustules and pimples.

Mouth: This patient often wakes up during the night grinding the teeth. The taste is bad, putrid. Inflammation of the gums. Bleeding from the mouth. Inflammation of the throat with bleeding of the throat. Burning in the throat and mouth, Trembling, quivering and swollen tongue. Trembling of the tongue when it is put out. Trembling of the hands when they are moved.

Those cases of diphtheria that ooze blood from the nose and mouth are very low types, and are sure to die without a well-selected remedy. The throat will be filled up under such circumstances with a diphtheritic membrane that looks dark. There is bleeding all around it. Sore mouth with bleeding. Ulcers in the mouth. Ulcers after Merc. in, those who are pouring forth saliva on the pillow at night. Bleeding ulcers in the mouth. Difficult swallowing. Malignant diphtheria.

Cannot lie on the right side or back without instantly producing black, bilious vomiting. This is a wonderfully bilious remedy, sick headaches, vomiting of bile in great quantities.

The various low forms of disease calling for Crotalus often, begin with vomiting great quantities of bile, sometimes bile mixed with blood.

Stomach: Pain in the stomach; coldness as if a piece of ice were in the stomach or in the abdomen. Stomach irritable, unable to retain anything, constantly throws up blood.

Crotalus has cured ulceration of the stomach. It has greatly restrained the growth of carcinoma when there is much vomiting of bile and blood. Vomiting in many instances where the blood has no tendency to coagulate.

Now, with all these ulcerations of the stomach, cancerous affections, low zymotic disease, jaundice is nearly always present; jaundice and more or less of bleeding; fever seldom runs high; sometimes the temperature is subnormal, but with oozing and bleedings, with dark hemorrhage from the nose and mouth and dark, scanty, bloody urine containing albumen.

Abdomen: The abdomen is greatly distended like the tympanitic abdomen of typhoid and the low zymotic diseases. Ulceration of the bowels, hemorrhage from the bowels. Much pain and soreness in the abdomen with numbness.

Feeling in it as if it were made of wood.

“Stool black, thin, like coffee grounds.

Dysentery of septic origin from foul water, food, etc.

Diarrhoea from noxious effluvia.”

Inflammation of the ovaries and of the uterus. Low form of putrid fever.

Women: Hemorrhages, Either dark clots or blood that has no tendency to coagulate and keeps on flowing. There is great trouble at the climacteric period. Hot flashes. Jaundice. Hemorrhage from the uterus or from other parts.

Cancer of the uterus with much bleeding. Great offensiveness. Patient becomes yellow, jaundiced, great exhaustion, mottled appearance of the skin, swelling of the face, of the leg, especially along the course of the veins. Phlegmasia alba dolens. Worse from the slightest touch. Worse from jar, from motion.

There is some reason to think that this will be more or less a heart remedy from the great cardiac weakness it produces. But the other snake poisons like Naja, Lach. and Elaps have had more clinical application than this one.

This one seems to prostrate the heart, but also to prostrate the whole body, and its complaints are more general. Mottled appearance of the limbs. Gangrenous appearance of the extremities.

Skin: Boils, carbuncles and eruptions are surrounded by a purplish condition of the skin, a mottled, blue, splotched or marbled state. It produces boils, abscesses and a condition somewhat resembling a carbuncle, with burning and violent pains, but the peculiar feature is the doughy centre.

Around the boil or carbuncle for many inches there is oedema, with pitting upon pressure. The boil, or abscess, or carbuncle will bleed a thick, black blood that will not coagulate. Carbuncles that come upon the neck and upon the back begin with a pustule, and then several come and they are surrounded by little pustules and papules and there is pitting upon pressure.

For these carbuncles you will need to study particularly Arsenicum, Anthracinum, Lachesis, Secale and Crotalus. They are the medicines that have in their nature malignancy and manifestation.

In puerperal fever there is a continued oozing of black offensive blood that will not coagulate; bleeding from every orifice of the body as well as from the uterus. Imagine a woman who is pregnant suffering from typhoid fever.

She aborts and a low zymotic state comes on with the symptoms that I have described and with all the appearances as if she would bleed to death after the abortion. The blood will not coagulate and the flow continues. Or in a woman during a typhoid fever menstruation comes on. It is not a true menstrual flow, that is, it does not resemble the ordinary flow, because it is copious, dark and liquid, a continuous oozing with all the grave symptoms described, and especially the besotted countenance, the comatose state, the appearance as if she were intoxicated, lying as one dead. When aroused every muscle trembles; if the tongue is protruded it trembles, and there is inability to articulate.

Crotalus may save her life. Would it be possible to think of graver states of sickness than such as are produced by the ophidia?

When a physician sees these symptoms coming on he immediately thinks of a class of remedies that can cover such a state, remedies like Baptisia, Arsenicum, Secale and the Ophidia, and sometimes Arnica, Phosphorus and Pyrogen.

Sleep: In the more chronic conditions the individual manifests a terrible state as to his sleep. He rises from sleep as in a fright; has horrible dreams of murder, of death, of dead bodies and dead people, of associating with the dead and with corpses, of being in graveyards; even the smell of the cadaver is dreamed of.

While he is awake he is tired, he is stupid, he cannot add figures, he makes mistakes in writing, he transposes sentences, and in words he transposes letters. He is unable to take care of his own accounts, for he cannot add up things that are at all particular. Sleep alternates with long and tedious periods of wakefulness.

He is disturbed by any change to warm weather. Great irritability, sensitive to spheres, easily disturbed by his surroundings, and easily wrought up into a pitch of excitement are also features of this remedy.

Following this up he is suspicious of his friends and is unable to reason upon a rational basis. He craves intoxicating drinks and is unable to resist the craving. This wonderful resemblance to old inebriates has led to the use of Crotalus in delirium tremens; it has the besotted countenance, the purple aspect of the face, the peculiar kind of hunger in the drunkard, the craving by spells for stimulants.

There is every reason to believe that in fat, robust, besotted drunkards it may, if properly used, be a remedy deep enough to remove the appetite for strong drink.

Chamomilla
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 59 of 180
Source pages 1238–1272 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

The general constitutional state of Chamomilla is great sensitiveness; sensitive to every impression; sensitive to surroundings; sensitive to persons; and, above all, sensitive to pain.

The constitutional irritability is so great that a little pain brings forth manifestations as if the patient were in very, great suffering. It naturally belongs to the woman’s nervous system, when she is wrought up and extremely sensitive and in pain.

Mind: The mental state goes along with this. Sensitiveness of the mind. Great irritability. These two run through Chamomilla so closely that they are inseparable. Sensitiveness to pain. Easily affected by mortification, by chagrin, so that the nerves become extremely sensitive from these causes, and pains, convulsions, colic, headaches and other kinds of nervous symptoms set in.

The nervous child when punished will go into convulsions. The oversensitive nervous woman will suffer from chagrin. Jerking and twitching of muscles from mortification and excitement. Excessive sensibility of the nerves, so excessive that only a few remedies equal it, such as Coffea, Nux vom. and Opium.

Of course, without hearing a lecture on Opium you naturally think of Opium as capable of producing stupor. Those of you who have seen, the awful state of mind and distress that follow the administration of the crude Opium will understand what I mean by the Chamomilla sensitivity. Convulsions of children.

Convulsions: It is not an uncommon thing, even now-a-days, and especially when practicing in the country, for the young mothers and the nurses to give for baby Camomile tea for colic, and the baby goes into convulsions. No one attributes it to Camomile tea, but the doctor will see at once, if he knows Chamomilla, that these convulsions are due to Camomile.

Then you see the jerkings, the convulsions, the hot head, the great sensitivity; sensitiveness, to noise, and to persons, and the great irritability between the convulsions, convulsions of children; they become stiff; roll the eyes; distort the face; twitchings of muscles; throw the limbs about; clinch the thumbs; bend the body backwards.

Such is the natural appearance of the Chamomilla convulsions; those convulsions that come on in oversensitive children, when they have suffered a good deal of pain from teething. Teething ought to be a perfectly healthy process, but it is really looked upon as a disease, and many doctors carry medicines for “teething children,” and administer them; first one and then another.

Chamomilla has fallen into that bad use of being given “for teething”. It is true that many children suffer from irritability of the brain, convulsions, stomach disorders and vomiting about the time of dentition, but I say dentition should not be a diseased state, it should be normal.

If they were in healthy they would cut teeth without sufferings. But slow teething we have to contend with, and that irritable state, that oversensitiveness, so that he child does not sleep. Wakes up as if it had awful dreams. Wakes up in excitement, vomits, has diarrhea with teething.

These symptoms come at this time when the child has not been properly looked after. Or perhaps the mother has not been properly qualified for parturition.

“Tetanic convulsions.

Twitching in the eyelids.

Pain in the limbs.

General prostration, faintness.”

Neuralgic pains all over the body with numbness. Twitching, darting, tingling pains. The pains are mostly ameliorated by heat, with the exception of the teeth and jaws. Toothache, pain in the teeth ameliorated by cold, and made worse by heat. But the earaches and pains in the extremities are made better by heat.

You will see in the text under “Temperature and Weather” the symptom:

“Pains are worse from heat,” with two black bars as if it were the most important symptom in it, and then below, without any bar,

“Sensitive to cold. Chilly,” and “Better from heat;”

but the fact is the pains that are worse from heat are about the teeth and jaws, and it is decidedly a particular symptom relating only to a part; whereas it is true that the patient in the general state, entirely contrary to what this says, is better by heat.

The pains in general are better by heat. The patient himself is better by heat. Consequently, this being a particular, it should state that the pains that are so commonly worse by heat are of the teeth.

The most important part of Chamomilla is the mental state. It pervades the whole economy and you will see that every region that is taken up, every part that is studied, brings into it the mental state of the patient.

This remedy has more mental symptoms than symptoms in any other part. Crying.

“Piteous moaning. Irritable.”

The irritability is so great that it manifests itself sometimes in a very singular way. The patient seems to be driven to frenzy by the pains, and she forgets all about her prudence and her diplomacy.

Loss of generosity: she has no consideration for the feelings of others. She will simply enter into a quarrel or dispute regardless of the feelings of anybody.

So, when you go into practice, do not be surprised when you go to the bedside of a patient in labor, who is full of pains and sufferings, if she says:

“Doctor, I don’t want you, get out.” just such an one will pass under other circumstances as a lady. The awful pains that she is having drive her to frenzy, and this frenzy, this oversensitiveness to pain, is coupled with the mental state.

Inability to control her temper, and the temper is aroused to white heat. Now, in the child, the child whines and cries and sputters about everything. It wants something new every minute. It refuses everything that it has asked for. If it is for something to eat, for something to play with, for its toys, when these are handed to the child it throws them away; slings them clear across the room.

Strikes the nurse in the face for presuming to, get something or other that the little one did not want, yet had asked for. Capriciousness. It seems that the pains and sufferings are sometimes ameliorated by passive motion, this very particularly in children.

The pains seem to be better when the child is carried, so the child wants to be carried all the time. This is true in the colic and in the bowel troubles. It is true with earache; it is true with the evening fevers, and the general sufferings from cold and conditions while teething.

Children must be carried. The nurse is compelled to carry the child all the time. And then there is the restlessness and capriciousness about the members of the family. The child goes two or three times up and down the room with the nurse, and then reaches out for its mother; goes two or three times up and down the room with her and then wants to go to its father. And so it is changing about. Never satisfied. It seems to have no peace.

When it has earache the sharp shooting pains cause the child to screech out. Carries the hand to the ear. The pains often cause that sharp, piercing tone of the voice. Adults in pain cannot keep still the pains are so severe; it is not always that they are decidedly ameliorated by moving, but they seem to be. But they move because they cannot keep still.

So the Chamomilla patient is tossing in bed, if in bed; not an instant quiet. And along with all of these the same irritability; becomes violently excited at the pain angry at the pain; irritable about the pain; will scold about the pain the pain is so torturesome. Aversion to talk, and snappish. The patient is constantly sitting and looking within herself when pains are absent.

Chamomilla has melancholy, and has suffering of the mind, without pain. Then the Chamomilla patient sits and thinks within herself a sort of introspection. Cannot be induced to say a word. Sadness. The Chamomilla child cannot be touched.

Wants to do as he pleases. Wants to change; wants to do something new. The answer from both the adult and the child are snappish. Complaints come on from contradiction; from anger. Convulsions come on from anger.

If the child is suffering from, whooping cough it will have a coughing spell, a spasmodic cough from being irritated. Goes into a spunky state, gets red in the face, and then gets to coughing. Peevishness.

“Quarrelsome. Easily chagrined or excited to anger.

Bad effects of having the feelings wounded.”

Such is the mental state, and, as I have remarked, that mental state will be found wherever there is an inflammatory condition that Chamomilla fits. In pneumonia, in bronchitis, laryngitis, inflammations of the ear, erysipelas, headaches, fevers, Chamomilla. is capable of curing when the mental state is present, and the symptoms, in particular, are present.

Headache: The headaches of Chamomilla are found in sensitive people, sensitive women, nervous; overstrained; overtired. Fidgety. Excitable women that suffer from pain. A little headache seems an enormous thing. Throbbing, tearing, bursting pains. Congestive headaches.

Worse when thinking of the pain, or when thinking about the sufferings. The headaches are worse evenings. A particular time in the evening for many complaints to be worse is 9 o’clock. Sometimes 9 o’clock in the morning, and sometimes 9 in the evening.

Fever condition worse 9 o’clock in the morning. Pains worse in the evening, and especially worse about 9 o’clock. Stitching, tearing pains in the temples and head. Wandering pains in the temples.

Pressing pain in the head as soon as attention was directed to it, better by busying the mind at something else, or by occupation; forcing one’s self to do something, and to think of something else. Congestion to the head. Violent neuralgia of the face, teeth, ear’ sides of the head. Pains inside of the mouth are ameliorated by cold. Pains of the ear and sides of the head are ameliorated by heat; earache ameliorated by heat.

Eyes: There are pains in the eyes. Inflammation of the eyes with bleeding. Oozing of a bloody water from the eyes of the new born infant. Chamomilla will cure if there is irritability of the temper.

Profuse acrid discharges; yellow discharges; discharges of purulent matter from the eyes. Violent pressure in the orbit. Lachrymation accompanying coryza with sneezing. Stuffing up of the nose. Headaches, irritability.

Associated with the above is a symptom:

“Face red and hot on one side, the other side pale.”

Ears: Like the whole constitution of the remedy there is a great sensitiveness of hearing. Roaring, ringing and singing in the ears. Stitching pains in the ears, ameliorated by heat. Pressing earache.

You will see the little one when the pain comes on put its hands up to its ears, and spitefully moaning, yelling and screaming. Violent pains in the ear. When old enough to talk about it will complain of heat in the ear, and a feeling of fullness as if the ear were obstructed or stuffed up.

In adults, nervous, sensitive women who cannot ride in the wind without covering up their cars.

The ears are so sensitive to air when other parts of the face and head are not sensitive to air.

You will find some patients that can not have air touch the neck. Others have extra covering between the shoulders. Chamomilla singles out the ears. The whole body is sensitive to air and to cold, and he wants to dress with plenty of covering.

Sneezing, watery coryza. Hot face on one side, and often with pains in the head and jaws. Fluent coryza, viscid, acrid, with loss of smell. Loss of smell lasting while the cold lasts.

Face: Rending pains in the face, sometimes involving the teeth and the outer face at the same time. It is not an uncommon thing to have a very sensitive woman if she is disturbed by chagrin, if she has been vexed by her servant, to go to her room and suffer tortures from pain in the face from that excitement, from anger.

If it is the outer nerves in the face the pains will be ameliorated by heat; but when it affects the teeth the pains will be ameliorated by cold. Heat of the face, while the rest of the body is cold.

“The face sweats after eating or drinking.”

It is a common feature of this remedy to sweat only about the head, the hairy scalp.

Sometimes during measles or scarlet fever we will have Chamomilla manifestations. Sweating about the head, face red on one side.

“One-sided swelling of the check;”

that is, an inflammatory attack, gets redder, and redder, and finally purple, going into erysipelas, with the mental symptoms.

Hot face, redness of one side. Burning in the face. Neuralgia of the face. If anything warm is taken into the mouth it will bring on aching in the teeth, and sometimes burning and throbbing in the roots of the teeth; tearing, stitching, stinging pains, aggravated by talking; aggravated in the open air; aggravated in a warm room, or getting warm in bed, anything that heats up the body will aggravate this toothache; ameliorated by holding cold drinks in the mouth.

Teeth and gums: Toothache that is entirely absent in the daytime; as soon as it comes night, and the patient gets into the warm bed, then these shooting, tearing pains begin; with the irritability, oversensitiveness to pain, the mental state, hot head, you have the Chamomilla toothache.

“Swelling and inflammation of the gums.

Threatened abscess of the gums.

Toothache when coming into a warm room,” when it has been better in the cold air. This toothache is one that may be brought on by taking cold, by exposing one’s self to cold air when sweating; and yet the toothache itself when present is ameliorated by cold.

“Toothache from a draft of air.”

“Ameliorated from eating cold things.

Worse before midnight.”

The most of the troubles of Chamomilla that come on in the evening and night subside about or sometimes before midnight.

“From midnight to morning almost all of the complaints of Chamomilla, are absent.

Many of them are absent during the day.

It has aggravation in the forepart of the night.

“Teeth feel too long.

Swollen gums.”

The Chamomilla infant will often hold a glass of cold water against the gums. The little one has inflamed gums, painful gums, the coming forth of the teeth is painful, and it seems to want to prolong the cold in the mouth; when it is so young you would not think it would realize the good of making use of the cold edge of the glass. Offensive foetid smell from the mouth.

The spasms that affect the child all over are likely to affect the larynx, and sometimes affect the larynx without affecting the child anywhere else.

“Spasms of the larynx during cough, or without cough.

Spasmodic constriction of the larynx.

Choking.

Spasms of the throat. Sore and inflamed.”

Throat: Chamomilla, cures sore throat when the throat is of a uniform redness, spreading pretty evenly over the whole throat, with considerable swelling. Inflammation of tonsils. Much redness; when the mental state is present. It will never cure a sore throat except in these irritable constitutions, such as suffer from pain, such as are easily angered, in a constant fret. The Chamomilla mental state determines when you ne to give Chamomilla in sore throat.

“Want of appetite. Great thirst for cold water and desire for acid drinks.

Unquenchable thirst.”

Aversion to coffee, warm drinks, to soups and liquid foods, The aversion to coffee is a strange thing. Chamomilla and coffee are very much alike in the general sensitivity of the economy. They antidote each other. When persons have been overdrinking coffee, nurses drinking coffee to keep up at night to take care of the patient; persons overdrinking coffee when tired and overworked. Chamomilla is its antidote.

“Thirsty, and hot with the pains.”

When the pains come, no matter where, she heats up, and sometimes becomes really feverish. Face red, especially on one side. Head hot; extreme irritability.

Chamomilla has much vomiting. Eructations of gas which smells like sulphuretted hydrogen. The Chamomilla patient has violent retching. Making violent efforts to vomit. Seems that it will tear the stomach. Covered with cold sweat. Exhausted. That is just what Morphine does.

If you have ever seen a patient who has been overdosed by a doctor – I hope that you will never see one that has been overdosed by yourself. Do not make a case, you will have one soon enough, but if you get into a town where there is an allopathic physician, and he happens to give Morphine to one of these oversensitive patients; it may relieve her pain for a little while, but on will come the awful eructations, and she will retch and vomit, and continue to retch when there is nothing to vomit.

Chamomilla will stop that, the first dose, in a few minutes, and it is the only remedy you will need. It will always stop the vomiting from Morphine after the crude effect of Morphine has passed away and the vomiting comes.

Colics: Colic, especially in the little ones, in the infants. Pain in the stomach and abdomen, The child doubles up, and screams, and kicks; wants to be carried; is extremely irritable; attack comes on in the evening; one side of the face red, the other side pale; wants things, and when they are given does not want them; and you have a Chamomilla colic.

It is a wind colic. It lasts a fraction of a minute, and then it straightens out again. It shows that it is a cramp, a wind-cramp. in adults, who have felt these symptoms, they are said to be cutting, burning, griping. Griping pains.

Of course, such are the pains that are called colicky. Cramps in the bowels. Griping pains. Sometimes griping as if must go to stool The abdomen distended like a drum. Sometimes ameliorated by warm applications.

“Colic while urinating;” that is an uncommon symptom.

“Colic in the morning.

Tympanitic abdomen.”

The most striking Chamomilla stool is grass green, or like chopped eggs, or like these two chopped up; yellow and white, intermingled with mucus that is grass green, like chopped grass; chopped spinach. Greenish, slimy discharges, greenish water.

Those old enough to express themselves in the proving said that the stool felt hot while it passed. It smells like sulphuretted hydrogen. Copious stool; scanty stool, with dysenteric straining. Watery diarrhoea, six or eight passages daily. Mucous diarrhoea. Green, watery stool, fæces and mucus.

“Yellowish brown stool.”

Also constipation, with no ability to strain. A paralytic weakness of the rectum; inactivity of the rectum. Anus is “pouting,” with swollen appearance and redness.

Women: The woman, such as I have described, oversensitive to pain, snappish, suffering intensely from a little pain, takes on many symptoms at the menstrual period. The menstrual flow is black, clotted, offensive. Cramping pains in the uterus, clutching and griping, ameliorated by heat.

“Oversensitive to pain,” with all the pains and complaints, and the mental state, the irritability, the snappish mental state at a menstrual period. Whether it be a menorrhagia, or a metrorrhagia, there are copious black clots.

“Menstrual colic following anger,” which means violent cramping pains in the uterus during menstruation if she has had any great excitement to anger her. Sexual irritability, emotions, disturbance of mind, will bring on cramps at the menstrual period in a woman who is not subject to cramps, affecting her as if she had taken cold.

It is a very useful remedy in membranous dysmenorrhoea. It, perhaps, has existed from the first menstrual period. Every month the woman throws off a little membranous formation. This is thrown off with violent labor-like pains, and often with clots.

Chamomilla may be a palliative. It is not the constitutional remedy that clears away, and prevents the future formation of this membrane, like the deeper antipsorics, but it is often palliative in the more severe attacks, with the irritable condition of the mind; feverish condition, ameliorated by heat; cramping, and clutching like labor pains,

“Yellow, smarting leucorrhoea.

Excessive menstruation; blood dark, nearly black, clotted, with pain through from back to front, attacks of syncope, coldness of limbs, much thirst.”

Pregnancy: In pregnancy the woman has also Chamomilla conditions. Irregular contractions; false labor pains. Labor pains that are felt in wrong places. Labor pains that are felt too much in the back.

Contractions that are most painful, cutting, tearing, bringing out screams. so irritable; she scolds the pains; she scolds the doctor; she scolds everybody; drives the doctor out of the room; drives the nurse off, and then calls for her again; refuses things that are offered.

Labor pains that are clutching here, and clutching there, and cramping, showing that certain fibres of the uterus are contracting in one direction, and certain other fibres in another. There is not that uniform, regular contraction that should take place in the expulsion of the contents of the uterus; expulsion of a mole or expulsion of a child.

If the physician can have the pregnant woman under his care during the period of gestation he ought to be able to select remedies to remove these irregular contractions of the uterus, or to prevent them when it comes time for labor. The pains are then not so violent. She feels the contractions, but in many instances they are painless.

You will not always be able to prepare women, they will not always permit it. Women are more inclined to be notional and whimsical and to have their own way a short time before confinement than at any other time. A woman ought to be under treatment all through, gestation, and sometimes it takes longer.

Gestation is a fortuitous time for the woman to take treatment. Symptoms representative of her disordered state come out then that do not appear at any other time. If she has a psoric condition it may remain dormant until pregnancy comes on, which may act as an exciting cause to bring out the conditions that are in the constitution.

It furnishes, therefore, a good time for the homoeopathic physician to study the case and give that woman a constitutional remedy based upon those symptoms that will not only remove those symptoms and prepare her for confinement, but will remove very much of the disorder in her economy, and she will go on through life liberated from much distress, cured from many conditions that perhaps would not have come out until some other occasion brought them out.

A woman that knows much about Homoeopathy would submit herself regularly to constitutional treatment during gestation, that is, would be particular to give the physician everything, all the details, all the sufferings, all the trouble, that he may study that case.

The things that are to be observed during gestation are to be added to the constitutional. symptoms found when gestation is not present, because they are all evidence of a disturbance in that one patient. And it is the patient that is to be treated, not a disease. It is simply another form of disturbance, of disorder of the economy.

The things that Chamomilla reaches during confinement, and during its course, and at the close of it, are irregular contractions, like hourglass contractions.

“Rigidity of the os.”

After confinement, after pains. With all these the same mental condition, the same oversensitiveness to pain.

“Postpartum hemorrhage.”

Every time the child is put to the breast, cramping of the uterus; cramp in the back. Either of these, or both, Chamomilla cures. The two principal remedies you will have to rely on for these conditions, cramping in the back and cramping in the abdomen every time the child is put to die breast, are Chamomilla and Pulsatilla. They are two decidedly different remedies in the mental sphere. One is mild and gentle, though whimsical; and the other is snappish and irritable. Both are sensitive to pain, but Chamomilla is far more sensitive to pain than Pulsatilla.

Chamomilla has inflammation of the mammary glands. You cannot prescribe for that unless you have something along with it, and I am sure you will recognize a Chamomilla patient. The woman goes into convulsions.

At the beginning of the confinement the husband comes into the room in some snappish way,

“to make his wife behave herself;” it makes her mad, and she goes into convulsions.

The doctor, perhaps, has just turned his back upon it, but now he says,

“Well, why did I not think to give this woman a dose of Chamomilla?

If I had done that I would have prevented these convulsions.”

She becomes very philosophical after a dose of Chamomilla, and often goes to sleep.

Chest, cough and respiration: There are many suffocative attacks and difficulties of breathing, inflammation of the larynx, that you can read up easily.

The cough of Chamomilla has some striking things in it. It is a hard cough, a dry, backing cough. The child goes to sleep at night and coughs and does not wake up. Coughs in its sleep, It is a little feverish has taken cold, and one side of the face is flushed.

It is crabbed when it is awake. The child becomes angry when it has a cold and a little cough, and a little disturbance of the larynx and bronchial tubes has been noticed coming on, and all at once it becomes more excitable, wants to be carried, and if not pleased, or is angered, it will go into a hard coughing spell, and cough and vomit.

“Coughing spells from anger.”

That is, he coughs when there is already a cold or a cough, and if the patient becomes angry he has a fit of coughing. The coughing complaints, and chest complaints, and laryngeal complaints are generally worse at night.

The feverish condition comes on at night with the Chamomilla colds, with the Chamomilla whooping cough, with the Chamomilla chest complaints.

Most of the complaints of Chamomilla are better after midnight. From 9 o’clock to midnight they are worse.

“Dry cough worse at night and during sleep.”

Dry cough from catching cold. Rough, scraping cough of children in winter, with tickling in sus sternal fossa, worse at night.

Dry cough, continuing during sleep. Amelioration of cough when getting warm in bed. Chamomilla is a very common remedy in whooping cough, where the child wants to be carried; keeps the nurse busy all the time. Coughs and gags and vomits, and it is very irritable and capricious in all of its wants and coughs during sleep.

You can now easily detect the chest symptoms. They go with the mental symptoms and the irritability and cough. The cough in the chest is scarcely different from the cough in the larynx and the cough from cold.

It is the same Chamomilla cough. Cough during sleep. During most of the complaints, fevers, colds, acute complaints and little attacks, burning of the extremities.

Limbs: Stitching pains in the limbs. Cramping in the muscles. Limbs go to sleep. With the pains in the limbs, and sometimes in other parts, but particularly in the limbs, a benumbed feeling, or pains with the feeling of deadness, pains accompanied by a benumbed feeling; sometimes almost complete loss of sensation of the skin, yet the pains in the long nerves in the extremities are very violent, and the patient seems just as sensitive to pain as at other times.

Extremely sensitive to pain, but the pains themselves cause a benumbing feeling to follow them.

It has been called in Older books a paralyzing pain. Convulsions of the extremities. Convulsions of the whole body.

“Cramps in the legs and calves.

Tearing pains in the feet following a severe chill.

Burning of the soles at night, puts the feet out of bed.”

All the routine prescribers whenever. the patient is known to put the feet out of bed give Sulphur,, yet there is a large list of remedies with hot feet, burning soles, and all of them will put the feet out of bed, of course, to cool them off.

There is no reason why they should all get Sulphur.

Another feature of the pains that come on at night, sometimes, before midnight is, they are so violent that he cannot keep still. When the child has pains he wants to be carried, that seems to do him good. When the adult has pains at night in bed he gets up and walks the floor.

Benumbing pains, pains ameliorated by heat, pains that drive him out of bed at night, with twitchings of the limbs.

Oversensitiveness to pain. Great irritability.

Sleep: The Chamomilla patient can not go to sleep at night. He is sleepy, like Bell., but he cannot sleep. If he quiets down during the day he wants to go to sleep. But as soon as the time comes to go to bed he is wide awake, he is sleepless and restless at night, especially the fore part.

At times the Chamomilla patient becomes so full of visions and so much excited during the forepart of the night in his efforts to go to sleep that when be does go to sleep he jerks and twitches and has horrid dreams, and is full of sufferings.

“Anxious dreams. Sees horrible apparitions and starts; dreams about fatal accidents.”

Worn out mentally from trying to go to sleep, and he is tired out.

Croton Tiglium
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 75 of 180
Source pages 1473–1488 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Skin: Croton oil, when applied to the skin, produces both vesicles and pustules upon an inflamed base, and the part becomes very red and sore.

The inflammation often increases until it resembles erysipelas, but more commonly the eruption produced resembles a vesicular eczema. This eruption will come on for a few days and will then desiccate, and in a few days longer it will desquamate.

When one has been overdosed, as is done in a too prolonged proving, or by the crude drug, or when the prover has been markedly sensitive, we get an alternation of states, the internal alternating with the external.

After the eruption is out the internal manifestations are not present, as is seen in the rheumatic state, the cough and the bowel symptoms. If we study these groups separately we will find they are all interesting.

Cough: First, its cough. It has an asthmatic cough, coming on in the middle of the night, often arousing the patient from a sound sleep. Attacks of violent coughing, with dyspnoea and choking, worse at night and worse on lying down, compelling him to sit up, to be bolstered up in bed, or to sit up in a reclining chair.

His friends wonder if he is not going into consumption. If it is a child they wonder whether it is not whooping cough. There is extreme irritation of the air passages, so that the inhalation of air brings on the cough. Sensitive to deep breathing. Now, this will go on for a while and finally he will break out with an eruption somewhere upon the body, vesicles and pustules, in clusters and patches, that become inflamed and red and finally dry up and desquamate and disappear, and then back comes his cough. This may go on as a chronic state, and when such is the case it will be very well to know this remedy.

Bowels: The next most important symptoms are the bowel symptoms, and perhaps they are the best known of any of its symptoms outside of the eruption. It is suitable in both acute and chronic diarrhoea. It is suitable in cholera infantum.

The marked feature is the extreme, suddenness with which the stool is ejected. It seems to come out in one gush of yellow, watery or pappy stool; soft, thin fæces, coming, out with one gush, so marked is this that it is not an uncommon thing for a rural patient to describe it as “like that of a goose.”

It all gushes out in one squirt.

The mother says of the little patient:

“You would be astonished, doctor, at the violent rush, for it all comes out with one squirt.”

That is descriptive. Many remedies have a holding on and a prolonged effort at stool, until it takes quite a long time. Many of the diarrheas are prolonged with numerous little gushes of thin fæces or water, but this particular feature is striking.

It may not always be so, but this violent gush of thin, yellow faeces or yellow water is a striking feature of the remedy.

With this the abdomen is very sensitive, and is greatly distended; there is much gurgling in the bowel, and when the physician puts his hand upon it the patient will say he feels the gurgling, as if he were full of water, and it probably is so, for the expulsion of the stool would not occur in one strong gush were it not for the fact that the colon and rectum were full of fluid.

Another peculiar thing commonly attending Croton tig. diarrheas is that pressure over the abdomen or pressure about the umbilicus causes a pain in the rectum and urging to stool, and a feeling, with the expulsion of the stool, as if the rectum would protrude. Clinically it has been described as if the pain followed the intestines all the way down to the anus.

The taking of a little water, or of a little milk, what would ordinarily be suitable food for such a diarrhea, will at times cause an instant urging to stool; he must go to stool immediately after eating.

This gives the general features of the Croton tig. diarrhoea. If it is in an infant there is great exhaustion, tympanitic abdomen, much rumbling of the bowels, great sinking, and as soon as the infant takes one mouthful of milk or draws from the mother’s breast it expels a gush of liquid or pappy stool.

Eyes: Another most important group of symptoms is its eye symptoms. It has eye symptoms of an inflammatory character, and around the eyes and upon the lids are vesicles and pustules.

Pustules upon the cornea, granular lids. Inflammation of all the tissues of the eye. It has an inflammation of the iris and conjunctiva. The blood vessels of the eyes are distended, the eye looks red and raw. The eyelids when turned out are seen to be greatly inflamed and granular, covered with vesicles and pustules.

With this inflammatory condition there is a sensation very commonly present in the Croton tig. eye cases, as if the eye were drawn backwards by a string, or as if the optic nerves were dragging the eyes backwards into the head.

This drawing in the back of the eye as with a string is also peculiar to Paris quadrifolia, but the conditions are different in Paris quad. In headaches from overuse of the eyes in engravers or those doing fine needle work, with much neuralgia in the head, due probably to the overuse of the eyes, when the pains in the eyes are not attended with inflammation, but are more of the type of dull aches and pains that you might call only rheumatic or neuralgic, with this sensation as if the eyes were drawl) back into the brain; in these neuralgic cases use Paris quad.

But in the inflammatory conditions such as I have described, with the same drawing back as with a string, Croton tig. is the remedy.

Troublesome eczema of the scalp in infants, either purely vesicular or intermingled more or less with pustules. The vesicles dry up and then desquamate, and now there is a red, raw, inflamed surface, sensitive to touch.

After desquamation has pretty nearly finished, a new crop of pustules and vesicles comes out, and while one place is clearing off another is vesicular. This is how it goes on with a chronic eczema. The eruptions are often about the eyes, on the temples, over the face and on top of the head.

The appearance is so nearly like Sepia that the two very often cannot be distinguished. Sepia has the same vesiculation intermingled with pustules, the bleeding and rawness of the surface and the eruption of new crops.

Sepia is more frequently indicated in this raw and bleeding state of the scalp, in crusta lactea, or the eruption of children that Crot. tig. Under Croton tig. infants in this state very often have attacks of gushing diarrhea, coming on from the slightest disturbance or indigestion; this is a great help in guiding to the remedy.

When the two groups of symptoms are combined, the scalp symptoms and the diarrhea, you can hardly make a mistake. You will see this also, that if the diarrhea is at all prolonged, the head will steadily improve and you will think your patient is getting well of the scalp trouble, but when the diarrhea slackens up a little out will come a fresh crop.

If the diarrhoea becomes chronic the external eruption will disappear, and if the diarrhea improves the external eruption gets worse. It seems necessary in such a constitution to have a vent. The mucous membrane is but the internal skin, and the integument of the body the external skin, and this remedy especially manifests itself upon one or the other of these, the mucous membrane or the integument.

Lactation: It has another manifestation that you want to carry in mind, a group of symptoms in relation to lactation. After confinement the mother may go on a little while with all things following normally, but all at once she commences to have pains in one or the other mammary gland, and the drawing as with a string comes up again.

It feels to her as if a string were attached behind the nipple pulling backward, a sharp, drawing, stinging pain that will in some instances keep her walking the floor night and day.

Though it is but a little thing it is a very important symptom to know with Croton tig. We see this drawing, as with a string, in the eye and in the breast, and also the symptom, very like the Plumbum symptom, drawing in the naval upon pressure, somewhat like a string.

Associating such things together will enable you to understand them as a part of the nature of the remedy and to keep them in mind. I once cured a woman of this painful drawing from the nipple as with a string. I watched her walk the floor and saw that the suffering must be very intense, for at times it brought tears to her eyes. She had borne it several nights, which shows that Croton tig. is capable of curing a pain that is very prolonged or tedious.

The breast had been poulticed, hot applications had been put upon it, and they did not give relief, a point which is worth remembering.

In cholera infantum, we will naturally have the symptoms of vomiting, which, however, are not so common to Croton tig., although it has some vomiting, So in cases of cholera infantum, in which the vomiting is not so important a feature as the loose bowels, the remedy may be Crot. tig.

A symptom is reported that is of great value. Excessive nausea with vanishing of sight, vertigo, worse after drinking, with frequent discharges of yellowish-green water from the bowels; excessive nausea, much water in the mouth. So we note the excessive nausea and not so great vomiting.

The nausea is more like that of Ipecac, but in Ipecac. we have nothing like the stools of Crot. tig., we have only scanty little gushes, every minute a little gush with tenesmus. Vomiting is the all important symptom in the cholera infantum of Ipecac., and when the stomach is emptied there is overwhelming retching and exhaustion from it, and the stools are scanty; but in Croton tig., the stools are copious and while there is nausea the vomit ing is seldom and scanty.

Another feature to be considered in this remedy is its relation to Rhus.

It is an antidote to Rhus. Croton tig. is closely related in its vesicular eruption to the Rhus family (particularly Rhus tox.). Anacardium, Sepia and Anagallis.

Skin: The eruptions of Croton tig. very often select as a location the genital organs. Rhus does the same, and when the genital organs are the principal seat of the eruptions in Rhus poisoning Croton tig. will commonly be its antidote; also when the eruptions are most about the eyes and scalp Croton tig. will often furnish an antidote.

When the symptoms, however, confine them selves to the palms of the hands Croton tig. is not the remedy, but it is Anagallis. Anagallis does upon the palms of the hands just what Croton tig. does upon the genitals. If you examine Anagallis you will find that the eruptions will come out and desquamate, and no sooner does the surface look as if it would heal than a new crop comes out. Rhus is similar in that it locates upon the palms of the, hands, but Rhus does not repeat itself. upon inflamed surfaces. In the Croton tig. eruption there is some burning, but nothing like that of Rhus.

The Rhus burning pain in eruptions that are marked is almost like fire. It is worse from the air, and it is better from dip ping the part in water as hot as it is possible to endure it. Persons who have these Rhus eruptions talk about scalding their hands to relieve the itching and burning.

So it is with Croton tig, but it is usually so sore he cannot touch it; when the eruption is so mild that he can handle it, we find that the slightest rubbing relieves the itching.

In Rhus touch aggravates the itching. In bad cases of Rhus poisoning he will hold his fingers far apart if they have very large blisters upon them, and he will not touch the place because it establishes a voluptuous itching that nearly drives him wild.

Although this is not so with Croton tig., still they are similar enough to each other to be antidotal; they do not have to be exactly alike, but they need to be similar.

It is true that remedies that are relieved by scratching are more nearly antidotal to such remedies as are relieved by scratching. The more similar the better; but medicines will antidote each other when they are similar only in general character, and they will cure disease when they are similar in general character.

It is also true that medicines while they are not similar in general character may be similar enough in special localities to remove the symptoms in these localities, while the disease will go on. The remedy in this case is not similar enough to cure the disease, but it has removed some of the symptoms. That is the most miserable kind of a prescription, as it changes the manifestations of the disease without changing its nature. In that way, a very poor prescription may hunt around and get one remedy for one group of symptoms and another remedy for another group, and the patient be worse off than before. If the remedies are similar as to their general nature, then the little superficial symptoms are not so extremely important.

“Frequent, corrosive itching on glans and scrotum.”

“Vesicular eruption on scrotum and penis.”

It is a remedy for vesicular and pustular eruptions upon the genital organs. It is closely related to Petroleum, which has fine red vesicular and granular elevations, intermingled with fine red rash upon the genitals, itching intensely, worse at times by scratching until burning comes on and then bleeding which relieves.

Chelidonium
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 60 of 180
Source pages 1273–1286 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Chelidonium is a remedy more suitable for acute diseases, though it cures certain chronic conditions. It is not a very deep acting remedy. It is about like Bryonia in its general plane, length and depth of action.

It has been used principally in gastric and intestinal catarrhs, in acute and semi-chronic liver troubles, and in right-sided pneumonia.

Skin: The skin is likely to be sallow, and gradually increases to a marked jaundice in connection with these complaints. Semi-chronic gastritis, with jaundice.

“Gastro-duodenal catarrh.

Congestion and soreness in the liver, with jaundice.

Right-sided pneumonia, complicated with liver troubles, or jaundice.”

This remedy seems to act throughout the system, but almost always along with it the liver is involved, and it is suitable for what the old people and the doctors called “biliousness.” The patient is generally bilious, has nausea and vomiting. Distension of the veins. Yellowish grey color of the skin.

Mind: Very few mental symptoms have been brought out in its proving not enough to give us a good idea of the desires and aversions. We do not get a clear idea of the intellectual faculties. It needs further proving, yet in many regions it has had superabundance of proving.

“Sadness and anxiety.”

Brooding over some sort of trouble generally runs through the mental state.

“Anxiety, allowing no rest,” keeping the patient uneasy day and night.

Sadness, as if she had committed a crime; as if some dreadful thing was going to happen. So sad that she thinks she must die “Weeping despondency.

Distaste for mental exertion and conversation.

If you examine those medicines that act primarily upon the liver, that slow down the action of the liver, you will find the word melancholia.”

With heart troubles, great excitement, With liver troubles, slowing down of the mental state, inability of the mind to work, sluggishness of the mind, inability to think, inability to meditate, slow pulse. Sluggishness of the whole economy.

Dizziness: The sensorium is very commonly disturbed, and the patient is dizzy.

“Things go round in a circle.”

Dizziness comes, and it does not let up until nausea, and sometimes vomiting, follows.

“So much turning in the head that he vomits.

Confusion of mind.

Loss of consciousness and fainting.”

These are also common features with liver troubles.

The mind symptoms are present more or less with the following liver symptoms; there are pains of a dull aching character, “soreness.” Bruised pains. Tenderness of the liver to touch. Aching pains, that seem to involve the whole right lobe of the liver; creating a sensation of fullness. Pressure upwards, with difficulty of breathing. Pressure downwards, sympathetic with the stomach, with the nausea and vomiting.

Right scapula: And then more intense pain felt under the right scapula.

“Dull aching pains under the right scapula; sharp, shooting pains under the right scapula”; these complicate themselves again with pneumonia, with pleurisy.

It cures pneumonia and pleurisy; it cures various forms of congestion in the liver, when these pains go from before backward, and seem to be felt through the back.

“Stitching in the region of the liver, extending through to back.

Hard pains felt through the back.”

Some patients will describe these pains as shooting pains; some as tearing pains, and others as sharp pains, going through the right hypochondrium or through the right lobe of the liver to the back.

“Pains from the region of the liver, shooting towards the back and shoulders.

Spasmodic pain in the region of the liver.

Pressing pain in the region of the liver.”

In congestion or inflammation, fullness and enlargement, semi-chronic cases, or even acute, this medicine proves suitable for such conditions. The right hypochondrium is tense and painful to pressure.

This remedy has cured gall stone colic. Practitioners, who know how to direct a remedy, relieve gall stone colic in a few minutes. We have remedies that act on the circular fibres of these little tubes, causing them to relax and allow the stone to pass painlessly.

In a perfect state of health, of course, there are no stones in the bile that is held in the gall bladder, but this little cystic duct opens its mouth and a little gall stone engages in it, and it creates and irritation by scratching along the mucous membrane of that little tube.

When this pain is a shooting, stabbing, tearing, lancinating pain, extending through to the back, Chelidonium will cure it. The instant it relieves the patient says:

“Why, what a relief; the pain has gone.”

The remedy has relieved that spasm, the little duct opens up and the stone passes out through the ductus communis choledochus. Every remedy that is indicated by the symptoms will cure gall stone colic.

A patient lying in bed, with great heat, extreme sensitiveness, cannot have the body touched, screaming with pains, red face and hot head, will gall stone colic, will be relieved in three minutes by Bell., but that is not at all like this remedy. Natrum sulph. and many other remedies have cured gall stone colic in a few minutes, when the symptoms agreed.

Now as to the pneumonia, it is generally of the right side, or right sided spreading to the left. The right-sidedness is marked, and but small portions of the left lung are involved. The pleura is generally involved, and so there are stitching, tearing pains.

One may not practice long before be will find a Chelidonium patient, sitting up in bed with high fever, bending forward upon his elbows, holding himself perfectly still, for this medicine has as much aggravation from motion as Bry. All of the pains are extremely aggravated from motion.

This patient is sitting with a pain that transfixes him; he cannot stir, he cannot move without – the pain shooting through him like a knife.

The next day you will see that his skin is growing yellow. If you see him in the beginning Chelidonium will relieve him and you will prevent that pneumonia. It is not uncommon in children, and it is extremely common in adults.

Do not get confused with Bryonia. Both are violently worse from motion. Bryonia wants to lie on the painful side, or wants to lie on the back if the pneumonia is mostly in the posterior part of the right lung. In Chelidonium he is worse from touch and motion.

Bell. has that extremely painful, tearing, rending, of the right lung with pleurisy, but in Bell., one cannot touch that right side, cannot press it, but must lie on the other side and he cannot move. Cannot stand a jar of the bed, because of the extreme sensitiveness to motion: I mention all three in this particular way because they have some things in common, but the remedies are different.

Chelidonium has cough with chest symptoms of the right side, liver affections, and the mental affections that commonly belong to these, violent aggravation from motion. The pains are ameliorated by heat. Pain that extends to the stomach, ameliorated by heat.

Mental symptoms: ameliorated by eating. Craves hot milk; hot fluids. Eating warm food ameliorates the liver, the chest and stomach symptoms.

“Bilious vomiting. Retching; bilious eructations.

Nausea and retching during an attack of anxiety.”

Stomach: These are all commonly present during the complaints described. The pains, when they become severe, seem to strike the stomach and cause vomiting. Ameliorated by something hot.

“A feeling of anguish in the pit of the stomach.

Persistent pain in the stomach; aggravated by motion and ameliorated by eructations.

Constriction and sensitiveness in the pit of the stomach.”

These are all aggravated by touch and ameliorated by eating.

“Constant aching pain in the stomach, ameliorated by food.

Constrictive, pinching pain in the stomach better from drawing up the limbs and lying on the left side, ameliorated by eating.”

Eye: It has many eye symptoms. Stitching pains.

“Opacity of the cornea.”

Inflammations.

Bruised pain in the eyes.

Right supraorbital neuralgia.”

In many instances it prefers the right side.

In the face the jaundice is the most marked thing that is expressed and, then, we have the dirty gray complexion.

“Pale, dirty-yellow-face.”

Head: The headaches are brought on from heat, unlike the stomach and the liver, and the lungs, etc.

The head is aggravated from motion, aggravated from beat, aggravated from a warm room, aggravated from warm applications. There is where it differs from the internal or general state. There are numerous headaches.

Periodical bilious sick headaches, with vomiting of bile, brought on from exposure to beat, from being overheated, aggravated from motion, wants to lie perfectly quiet in a dark room, and better from vomiting bile.

Old-fashioned bilious sick headaches.

Bilious diarrhoea. Along with jaundice, clay-like, pale, faecal, puttylike stool. Bileless stool. Stool too light colored. Stool quite white in children. Diarrhea and constipation alternate. Stool brown, white, watery, green mucus, thin, pasty, bright yellow, or gray tinged with Yellow.

Voice and respiration: Hoarseness.

“While coughing, pain in the larynx, and pressure in the larynx.”

The difficult breathing comes on with liver symptoms and pneumonia and chest troubles in general.

“Difficult respiration, with short fits of coughing.

Short, quick breathing.

Anxiety as if he must choke.

Difficult breathing; tightness over the chest as if breathing would be hindered.”

It has also nightly attacks of humid asthma. This is brought on from every change of the weather.

All its complaints are brought on from changes in the weather. He cannot stand weather changes, either too cold or too warm. Rheumatic complaints in the shoulders, hips and limbs, from changes in the weather.

With complaints of the liver, lungs and chest, there are coughs. They are spasmodic. The chronic cough is violent, spasmodic, dry, coming in paroxysms.

“Spasmodic cough, without expectoration.”

After it has existed a while there wilt be some expectoration.

“Repeated attacks of short cough: Short cough, with little grayish phlegm.

Rattling; fatiguing cough”.

Limbs: In the limbs there are rheumatic and neuralgic pains. Neuralgia of the limbs in general, most violent. Limbs feel heavy and stiff. Limbs flabby. Later the patients runs down somewhat, weak heart, weak circulation; dropsical conditions of the limbs. Great restlessness.

“Trembling and twitching of the limbs.

Weariness.

Indolence.

Indisposition to work.”

The neuralgias are more common in the head and face than in the lower parts of the body, in the limbs and in the extremities.

It has sharp, febrile attacks, such as found in pneumonia with chill and in inflammation of the liver. It has cured intermittent fever, coming in the afternoon and evening.

Itching of the skin. jaundice. It has cured old putrid ulcers.

Editorial notes

• “grayish phelgm” corrected to “grayish phlegm” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Cuprum Metallicum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 76 of 180
Source pages 1489–1514 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Convulsions: Cuprum is pre-eminently a convulsive medicine. The convulsive tendency associates itself with almost every complaint that, Cuprum creates and cures.

It has convulsions in every degree of violence, from the mere twitching of little muscles and of single muscles to convulsions of all the muscles of the body. When these are coming on the earliest threatenings are drawings in the fingers, clenching of the thumbs or twitching of the muscles. It has twitching, quivering, trembling, and it has also tonic contractions, so that the hands are closed violently.

In this condition the thumbs are first affected; they are drawn into the palms and then the fingers close down over them with great violence. In the fingers and toes and in the extremities the spasmodic condition increases and extends until the limbs are in a state of great exhaustion. Tonic contractions, the limbs being drawn up with great violence and it seems as if the frame would be torn to pieces by the violent contractions of the muscles everywhere.

Mind: Often the contractions assume a clonic form, with jerking and twitching Cuprum has many mental symptoms. It has a great variety in its delirium, incoherent prattling, talking of all sorts of subjects incoherently. It has produced a variety of mental symptoms; delirium, incoherency of speech, loss of memory.

During its different complaints, such as cholera, some forms of fever, the puerperal state, dysmenorrhoea, congestion of the brain, etc., there is delirium, unconsciousness and jerking and twitching of the muscles.

The eyes roll in various directions, but commonly upwards and outwards or upwards and inwards. There is bleeding from the nose and the vision is disturbed. Between the convulsive attacks there is incoherent talk, delirium, during which the patient is spiteful, violent, weeping or shrieking. They go into convulsions with a shriek. In one place it is spoken of as bellowing like a calf.

This drug has the ability to produce a group of spasms followed by the appearance as if the patient were dead, or in a state of ecstacy. Convulsive conditions sometimes terminate in a state of stasis during which the mind ceases to act and the muscles remain quiet or only quiver.

This is often one of the leading features in whooping-cough when Cuprum is indicated. To bring it down to the language of the mother, the description which she gives of the little one, which will probably make you remember it better than if I use the text, she says that when the child is seized with a spell of this violent whooping cough, the face, becomes livid or blue, the finger nails become discolored, the eyes are turned up, the child coughs until it loses its breath, and then lies in a state of insensibility for a long time until she fears the child will never breathe again, but with violent spasmodic action in its breathing, the child from shortest breaths comes to itself again just as if brought back to life.

Whooping cough: You have here all the violent features of a convulsive whooping-cough. In addition to what the mother says you may also observe a few things, but the whole make up of such a case, its whole nature, shows that it is a Cuprum whooping cough.

If the mother can get there quickly enough with a little cold water she will stop the cough. Cold water especially will relieve the spasm, and so the mother soon gets into the habit of hurry ing for a glass of cold water, and the child also knows, if it has tried once that glass of cold water will relieve it.

Whenever the respiratory organs are affected there is spasmodic breathing, dyspnoea. There is also rattling in the chest. The more dyspnoea there is the more likely his thumbs will be clenched and the fingers cramped.

In the lower part of the chest, in the region of the xiphoid appendix, there is a spasmodic condition that is very troublesome. It seems to be at times a constriction so severe that he thinks he will die, and at others a feeling as if he were transfixed with a knife from the xiphoid appendix to the back.

Some say it feels as if a lump were in that region and others as if much wind were collected in the stomach. It destroys the fullness of the voice, and it seems as if his life would be squeezed out. Sometimes then it takes the form of colic and sometimes of neuralgia.

If you examine the sensation of tightness in the region of the stomach you will see at once how the voice is affected. You will find the patient sitting up in bed; he tells you in a cracked and squeaking voice that he will soon die if he is not relieved; his face is a picture of fear and anguish he really looks as if he were going to die; the sensation is dreadful.

Cuprum speedily cures this complaint. This constriction and dyspnoea occur sometimes in cholera morbus and in painful menstruation. Spasms of the chest are also accompanied by this constriction and a nervous spasmodic breathing. He is not able to take a full breath.

Cramps: The Cuprum patient is full of cramps. There are cramps in the limbs and in the muscles of the chest, with trembling and weakness. In old age, and in premature old age, it is useful for those cramps that come in the calves, the soles of the feet, and the toes and fingers at night in bed.

In debilitated nervous, tremulous old people, Cuprum serves a peculiar purpose. When an old man, who has been single a long time marries, his cramps will sometimes prevent him performing the act of coition. He has cramps in the calves and soles as soon as he begins the act.

It is especially suitable to young men who have become prematurely old from vices, from strong drink, from late nights and various abuses, and these cramps are not unlikely to occur in such subjects.

Cuprum and Graphites are the two remedies for cramps coming under these circumstances, but whereas Cuprum is said to produce cramps that prevent the act, Graphites is said to bring on the cramps during the act. The two remedies however compete closely with each other, and hence if Graphites corresponds to the constitution of the patient, it should be given, and the same in regard to Cuprum. Sulphur also has cured this state.

Menstruation: In spasmodic conditions that come on during menstruation Cuprum is also useful. Painful menstruation with spasms commencing in the fingers and extending over the body. Tonic contractions that look like hysterical manifestations.

They may be hysterical, but that does not interfere with Cuprum curing, if they are only spasmodic or convulsive. Violent dysmenorrhoea with delirium, turning up of the eyes, contortions of the face and epileptiform manifestations.

In epilepsy calling for Cuprum we have the contractions and jerkings of the fingers and toes. He falls with a shriek and during the attack passes urine and faeces. It is indicated in epilepsy that begins with a violent constriction in the lower part of the chest as I have described, or with the contractions in the fingers that spread all over the body, to all the muscles.

Again, it is a remedy sometimes needed in the puerperal state before or after delivery. The case may be of uraemic character, but no matter; the urine is scanty and albuminous. During the progress of the labor the patient suddenly becomes blind.

All light seems to her to disappear from the room, the labor pains cease, and convulsions come on, commencing in the fingers and toes. When you meet these cases do not forget Cuprum. You will look a long time before you can cure a case of this kind without Cuprum.

Cholera: In cholera morbus with gushing, watery stools and copious vomiting, the stomach and bowels are emptied of their contents. The patient is fairly emptied out, becomes blue all over, the extremities are cold, there is jerking of the muscles, cramping of the extremities and of the fingers and toes, spasms of the chest; he is cold, mottled, blue in blotches, going into collapse; the finger nails and toe nails and the hands and feet are blue.

There are several remedies that look like Cuprum in such a condition. In cholera we would naturally hunt for such remedies as produce cholera-like discharges, more or less spasmodic conditions, the great blueness, coldness, sinking and collapse.

We would here refer to Hahnemann’s observation. Hahnemann had not seen a case of cholera, but he perceived that the disease produced appearances resembling the symptoms of Cuprum, Camphor and Veratrum. He saw from the description of the disease that the general aspect of cholera was like the general aspect of Cuprum, Camphor and Veratrum, and these three remedies are the typical cholera remedies.

They all have the general feature of cholera, its nature and general aspect. They all have the exhaustive vomiting and diarrhoea, the coldness, the tendency to collapse, the sinking from the emptying out of the fluids of the body.

From what I have said you will see that the Cuprum case is, above all others, the spasmodic case. It has the most intense spasms, and the spasms being the leading feature, they overshadow all the other symptoms of the case.

He is full of cramps and is compelled to cry out with the pain from the contractions of the muscles. Camphor is the coldest of all the three remedies; the Camphor patient is cold as death. Camphor has the blueness, the exhaustive discharge, though less than Cuprum and Veratrum; but whereas in the two latter remedies the patient is willing to be covered up, in Camphor he wants the windows open and wants to be cool.

Though he is cold he wants to be uncovered and to have the windows open. But just here let me mention another feature in Camphor. It has also some convulsions which are painful, and when the pain is on he wants to be covered up and wants the windows shut. If there are cramps in the bowels with the pain, be wants to be covered up.

So that in Camphor, during all of its complaints in febrile conditions (and fever is very rare in Camphor), and during the pains he wants to be covered up and warm, but during the coldness he wants to be uncovered and have the air.

In cholera, then, the extreme coldness and blueness point to Camphor.

Again, with Camphor there are often scanty as well as copious discharges, so that the cholera patient is often taken so suddenly that he has the coldness, blueness and exhaustion and almost no vomiting or diarrhoea, a condition called dry cholera. It simply means an uncommonly small amount of vomiting and diarrhoea.

This is Camphor. Another prominent feature is the great coldness of the body without the usual sweat that belongs to the disease. Cuprum and Veratrum have the cold clammy sweat, and Camphor also has sweat, but more commonly the patient needing Camphor is very cold, blue and dry and wants to be uncovered. That is striking.

Now we go to Veratrum and see that we can have three remedies very much alike, and so perfectly adapted to cholera and yet so different. Veratrum is peculiar because of its copious exhaustive discharges, copious sweat, copious discharges from the bowels, copious vomiting, and great coldness of the sweat. There is some cramping and he wants to be warm; he is ameliorated by hot drinks, and by the application of hot bottles which relieve pain and suffering.

These three remedies tend downward into collapse and death. Now to repeat: Cuprum for the cases of a convulsive character, Camphor in cases characterized by extreme coldness and more or less dryness, and Veratrum when the copious sweat, vomiting and purging are the features. That is little to remember, but with that you can enter an epidemic of cholera with confidence.

In cholera-like states there are other remedies which relate to Cuprum and which ought to be considered. Podophyllum has cramps, mainly in the bowels. It has a painless, gushing diarrhea with vomiting as well, and hence is useful in cholera morbus.

The cramps in Podophyllum, are violent, they feel to him as if the intestines were being tied in knots. The watery stool is yellow, and, if examined a little while after, it looks as if corn meal had been stirred into it. The odor is dreadful, smelling like a Podophyllum, stool. If you say it smells like stinking meat that only partly describes it; it is not quite cadaveric but it is horribly offensive and penetrating.

The stool is gushing, copious, and is accompanied by dreadful exhaustion.

“It is a wonder where it can all come from,” says the mother, speaking of the exhausting diarrhea in an infant or in a child. The stool runs away gushingly, in prolonged squirts, with a sensation of emptiness, sinking, deathly goneness in the whole abdomen. Phosphorus also ought to be thought of in relation to Cuprum. It also has cramps in the bowels, exhaustive diarrhea, a, sinking as if dying, but commonly with heat of the skin, with burning internally, with gurgling of all the fluids taken into the stomach; as soon as they come to the stomach they commence to gurgle, and gurgle all the way through the bowel.

A drink of water seems to, flow through the bowel with a gurgle. Now this gurgling in Cuprum commences at the throat; he swallows with a gurgle; gurgling in the oesophagus when swallowing.

Convulsive cramps all over the body with twitching, jerking, trembling and blueness of the skin. Everything he does, all his actions are spasmodic, are convulsive. All the sphincters are convulsive, All the activities are irregular, disorderly and convulsive when poisoned with copper.

Bear these things in mind as we study every region in Cuprum. Repression or driving in of eruptions, attended with diarrhoea and convulsions, sometimes only convulsions. We note a case of measles or scarlet fever with a rash that has been suppressed by a chill or exposure to wind and convulsions have come on.

That belongs to Zincum and Cuprum, sometimes to Bryonia, but to Zincum and Cuprum particularly. Twitching of the limbs from a sudden suppression of a scarlet fever, with suppression of urine, chorea, etc.

Cramping of the muscles of the chest; cramping of the calves; cramp ing all over. Suppressed eruptions. Discharges that have been in existence quite a long time. The individual has become debilitated and worn out with excitement, but this discharge barely kept him alive. He has gradually grown weaker, but he has kept about because he had a discharge.

It has furnished him a safety-valve, If stopped suddenly convulsions will come on. That is like Cuprum. A woman has suffered a long time with a copious leucorrhoea and some unwise doctor tells her she must take injections and she checks it up for a few days, hysterical convulsions, crampings and tearings of the muscles come on; contractions of the fingers and toes. Discharges from old ulcers, fistulae suppressed.

Cuprum will re-establish a discharge that has been suddenly suppressed and convulsions followed. It stops the convulsions and reestablishes the discharge. It has caries, it has senile gangrene, or the gangrene that belongs to old age; old shriveled up octogenarians, whose toes and fingers get dark in spots; feeble circulation.

Mind: In the Cuprum patient the nerves are all the time wrought up to the highest tension; wants to fly, wants to do something dreadful.

Impulsiveness. Compelled to do something; restless and tossing about a constant uneasiness; nervous trembling; always tired. Great weakness of the muscles, and relaxation of the body when the convulsions are not on.

Twitching and jerking and starting during sleep. Grinding of the teeth with brain affections. Inflammations ceases suddenly and you wonder what has happened. All at once comes on insanity, delirium, convulsions, blindness; evidence of cerebral congestions and inflammation appearing with wonderful suddenness. Metastasis. A perfect change from one part of the body to another.

The same thing may occur from a suppressed eruption, or suppressed discharge, or a suppressed diarrhoea, and it goes to the brain affects the mind and brings on insanity; a wild, active, maniacal delirium.

Cuprum is not passive in its business. Violence is manifested everywhere. Violence in i ts diarrhoea, violence in its vomiting, violence in its spasmodic action; strange and violent things in its mania and delirium.

Hysterical cramps and hysterical attitudes may change in a night or in a day to St. Vitus’ dance, and go on with it as if nothing had happened. Such is the suddenness with which it changes its character. This is not generally known of Cuprum – this constant changing about. Spasmodic affections in general. Spasmodic coughs, spasms all over the body.

Chest: The face becomes purple. He loses his breath; suffocated. The mother thinks the child will never come to life again. Spasms of the chest; spasms of the larynx; spasms of the whole respiratory system of such a character that the child seems to be choking to death.

Whooping cough. With every spell of whooping cough comes this awful spasmodic state, this spasmodic coughing. Jerking of the muscles. Cuprum has spasms of the limbs with all sorts of contractions such as are found in hysterical constitutions.

Puerperal convulsions. Convulsions where a limb will first flex and then extend an alternation of flexion and extension. In a child you will see the leg all at once shoot out with great violence, then up against the abdomen again with great violence, and then again shoot out. It is hard work to find another remedy that has that. Tabacum has it, but not many others. Convulsions with flexion and extension are common to Cuprum. Convulsions of the limbs, twitching and jerking of the muscles. We get a part of the symptom-picture in one and part in another.

Head: Violent congestion in the head, violent pains in the head. Tingling pain in the vertex, severe pain in the vertex, bruised pain. Crawling sensation in vertex, stitches in the temples. Congestion of the brain, Meningitis. Headache after epileptic attacks. Paralysis of the brain with symptoms of collapse. Metastasis to the brain from other organs.

About the face; convulsions, jerking of the eyes; twitching of the lids. Bruised pain in the eyes. Spasms of the muscles of the eye so, that the eyes jerk and twitch, first from one side and then the other. Rolling of the eyes.

“Quick rotation of the balls with the lids closed.

Lids spasmodically closed” Closed so that they seem to snap.

“Inflammation of the periosteum about the eyes and cellular tissue of the lachrymal glands.”

Spots of ulceration on the cornea, Face and lips blue. The face is purple in convulsions and whooping cough; lips blue.

Inflammation of the tongue. Paralysis of the tongue, It is not an uncommon thing to find paralysis in Cuprum after convulsions, The violence of the convulsions seems to have brought about a re action and paralytic weakness, a numbness and tingling, a loss of motility.

“Spasms of the throat, preventing speech.

Sensation as if constricted on swallowing.

Great thirst for cold drinks.”

Many complaints are ameliorated by drinking cold water. The spasms are sometimes mitigated by drinking cold water. The cough is brought on sometimes by inhaling cold air, but stopped by drinking cold water, like Coccus cacti.

“Desire for warm food and drinks.

Eats hastily.”

Indigestion from milk. Then there is nausea, vomiting and diarrhea connected more or less with spasms. Spasms of the stomach. Spasms of the chest with diarrhea and vomiting. Cramps of the calves and the fingers and toes.

“Pressure in the stomach.”

In the stomach and bowels periodical cramps. Cramps coming periodically. It has cured colic in the form of violent cramps coming every two weeks with perfect regularity. It has pain in the stomach, and a pain under the xiphoid appendix that seems as if it would take his life. If it is not removed he will certainly die in a little while.

Constriction across the chest, suffocation, cramps of the legs. Cuprum goes deep into the life, and it has many a time taken such a grand hold of an old hysterical subject that it has completely eradicated in a short time the hysterical tendency to cramps.

In Cuprum particularly, early in the cramps the thumbs commence to draw down. It is with difficulty that they can be lifted up. They will draw back again, and then the fingers will clinch over them and draw so tightly it is painful. In children with such convulsions, and in hysterics with such convulsions, Cuprum goes deep into the life and eradicates this tendency to convulsions and cramps. Uraemic convulsions. Convulsions with suppressed or scanty urine.

No urine in the bladder. in young girls beginning to menstruate, violent cramps in the limbs, cramps in the abdomen, diarrhoea, cramps in the uterus. Epileptic spasms coming at every menstrual period. Before or during menses, or after suppression, violent, unbearable cramps in the abdomen. A case something Iike this is not so very uncommon.

Women: Girls, at about the time of puberty, go in bathing, when their mothers have been a little too prudish, a little too sensitive, and have not told their daughters what they might expect, and to look out for bathing in cold water at certain times. The menstrual flow starts. From a cold bath she suppresses that flow and on come convulsions.

That is in keeping with Cuprum. Hysterical convulsions they may be called. They will take the form, quite likely, of hysterical convulsions; they may take the form of chorea. Instead of convulsions it may take the form of congestion of the brain with violent delirium.

Again, the menses not appearing after suppression, after sweat, and convulsions come on; frequent spasms during menses. Cuprum is not generally known to be such a wonderful medicine where there is anaemia; but it has chlorosis. It is a deep acting medicine. It affects with great power the whole voluntary system, the desires and aversions.

It is suitable in those girls who have always had their own way, have never been crossed, and when they grow older, and reach puberty, and have got to submit to some sort of discipline or never become women, they have mad fits, have cramps. Cuprum will sometimes make them sensible, so in that way it fits into the loves and hates. It belongs to the voluntary system most prominently.

Spasmodic respiration; great dyspnea, asthmatic breathing. Attacks of spasmodic asthma and most violent spasmodic coughs.

“Dry, hard, difficult cough, rattling in the chest, spasms.

Dry spasmodic cough until he suffocates.

Face is red or purple.”

Cinchona (China)
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 64 of 180
Source pages 1287–1304 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Now we shall take up the study of Cinchona, or China. Persons who have suffered much from neuralgias due to malarial influences, who have become anaemic and sickly from repeated haemorrhages, are likely to develop symptoms calling for China.

China produces a gradually increasing anaemia, with great pallor and weakness. It is sometimes-indicated in plethoric individuals, but this is the exception, and even in this class we find that the symptoms are tending towards the cachectic state, which is avoided by the prompt action of the remedy.

Throughout the body there is a gradually increasing sensitivity, a gradually increasing irritability of the nerves; the nerves are always in a fret, so that these people will say:

“Doctor, what is the matter with me, I am so nervous?”

Pains: Everywhere there are twinning, tearing, cutting pains in the limbs and over the body. And so great is the sensitiveness to touch that the nerves can many times be outlined; as, for instance, the little nerves in the fingers, because of their extreme sensitiveness.

The China patient grows increasingly sensitive to touch, to motion, to cold air, so that he is chilled from exposure. The pains are brought on by exposure to the wind, by cold air, and are increased by motion and touch.

Old malarial conditions that have been suppressed with quinine; gradually increasing pallor, bloodlessness, cachexia, until the patient is always catching cold, has liver troubles, bowel troubles, disordered stomach, is made miserable and sick by nearly everything he does.

He cannot eat fruit without having indigestion; he cannot eat sour things. He is debilitated, pale, waxy, suffers from pains, such as are found in quinine subjects, and breaks out into a perspiration up the least exertion.

This patient bleeds easily; bleeds from any orifice of the body from the nose, from the throat, from the uterus. And after hemorrhage complaints come on.

Running through the remedy as a general constitutional state is a tendency to congestion and often inflammation, in connection with hemorrhages. Inflammation of the part that bleeds or of distant parts. For instance, a woman aborts, has a haemorrhage, but with apparently no provocation, inflammation of the uterus or of the lungs sets in.

With these inflammations there is also great irritability of the tissues, tearing pains, cramping in the muscles and actual convulsions. When a China patient bleeds a little, for instance, in confinement, right in the midst of the bleeding convulsions come on. You would scarcely need to think of any other remedy.

Secale is the one other medicine that has this, but the two do not look alike. Secale wants the covers all off and the windows open, even in cold weather. It a draft of air blows on a China patient, while in labor, she may go into convulsions.

In the midst of labor the pains cease and convulsions come on. Another feature about this inflammation is its rapid progress and intensity, quickly going into gangrene. Inflammation after haemorrhage and the parts rapidly turn black.

China has a fullness of the veins. Not exactly a varicose condition, but a sort of paralysis of the coatings of the veins. The veins become full during fever.

All of these complaints are such as we find in broken down constitutions, in feeble, sensitive patients, especially in sensitive women. Sensitive to the odors of flowers, of cooking, of tobacco. Weak, relaxed, emaciated, pale, with feeble heart, feeble circulation and tendency to dropsy.

Dropsy runs through the remedy; anasarca and also dropsy of shut sacs. A peculiar thing about this dropsy is, that it comes after hemorrhage. In the anaemic condition; directly following the loss of blood, dropsy appears. This is the typical China patient.

Mucous membranes: Catarrhal condition of all mucous membranes. Gastro-duodenal catarrh, ending in jaundice. Old liver subjects with jaundice. They have lived for a long time under the influence of the malarial miasm. Feeble, sensitive, anemic. We see such cases in the South and Southwest, and long the Mississippi Valley.

Periodicity: is regarded as the most important indication for China, but it is a mistake. Periodicity is the symptom upon which Quinine is given. China has periodicity, but in no greater degree than many other remedies and is not so frequently indicated as routine prescribers suppose. Allopaths give Quinine whenever there is any periodicity in complaints. Still periodicity is a strong feature in this remedy. Pains come on with regularity at a given time each day. Intermittent fevers appear with regularity and run a regular course.

A part of this periodicity is an aggravation at night, and sometimes sharply at midnight. In colic that comes on regularly every night at 12 o’clock, and it may be, perhaps, a week before you, suspect it to be a China colic. A lady had colic and bloating of the abdomen every night at 12 o’clock.

After suffering many nights a single dose of China, prevented any further trouble. Haemorrhage from the nose coming on with regularity. Diarrhoea at night. Several gushing, black, watery stool; during the night; in the daytime, only after eating.

There is a general aggravation after eating. Remember that this is a chilly patient, sensitive to draft, sensitive to cold, whose complaints are brought on by being exposed to cold air; sensitive to touch, sensitive to motion. Extreme irritability of the tissues.

China is indicated in conditions following the loss of blood and other animal fluids; as, for instance, in those who are suffering from sexual excesses, from secret vice. They have become feeble, sleepless and irritable.

There is weakness and general coldness of the skin; twitching and jerking of the limbs; drawing and cramping in the muscles; chronic jerking; epileptiform convulsion; paralytic weakness; rush of blood to the head; ringing in the ears; darkness before the eyes; fainting on the slightest provocation.

Mind: Such is the China cachexia, and with this in view, the mental state will scarcely be a surprise to you. It is just such as you would expect in this nervous, sensitive patient. Weakness of mind. Inability to think or remember. Full of fear at night. Fear of animals, dogs, of creeping things. Wants to commit suicide, but lacks courage. Gradually the mind grows weaker, he uses wrong expressions or misplaces words.

Lies awake at night making plans, theorizing, building air castles, thinking of the wonderful things he is going to do some day. In the morning he wonders how he could have thought such foolish things.

After sleep his mind is clear and he looks more philosophically on the affairs of life. Unable to entertain any mental proposition that, means work. He dreads work. He is apathetic, indifferent, low spirited, silent, disinclined to think. He is unable to control the mind, to make it do what he wants it to do. You see it is not as yet a real insanity.

This state of mind comes on after haemorrhage. Insomnia after haemorrhage. A woman, after having suffered great loss of blood, will be sleepless night after night.

After hemorrhage we may have dizziness. it is a natural consequence; dizziness and fainting. But ordinarily, after the proper diet for a few days, these symptoms will have disappeared. With the China patient they go from bad to worse. The woman after severe haemorrhage does not make blood. There is mal-assimilation, and the vertigo persists for days and weeks. China will restore order.

Head: The remedy is full of headaches. Congestive headaches in broken down constitutions. Extremities cold and body covered with a cold sweat. Rending, tearing pains. Pressing and throbbing. As soon as the air strikes the head those pains come on.

Headache better in a warm room; worse from touch; worse from motion; worse from cold. These are the principal features. A slight touch will aggravate the disturbance. But notice the exception. Hard pressure ameliorates the China pains, as light pressure aggravates.

Sensitiveness of the tissues; sensitiveness along the course of the nerves; the pains are brought on by touch, by cold air. Stitches in the head with pulsation in temples, which can be felt with the fingers; ameliorated by hard pressure, but aggravated by touch.

The jar and motion of walking hurt the head. Even turning over in bed aggravates. Cannot ride in a carriage or anything that jolts. Ameliorated by hard pressure. Throbbing headaches, aggravated by a draft of air, in the open air, from the slightest touch; ameliorated by hard-pressure. The scalp feels as if the hair was grasped roughly. It is sensitive to touch. Profuse sweating of the scalp. Headaches aggravated at night. Headaches from sexual excesses; loss of animal fluids.

Eyes: Now we come to the eye. Photophobia. Yellowness of the sclera, Exposure to cold wind will bring on neuralgia; ameliorated from keeping quiet and from keeping warm.

“Nocturnal blindness, dimness of vision.

Feeling as if sand were in the eyes.

Pains worse from light.

Better in the dark.”

Ears: In the ear and the nose you find the same sensitiveness as in eyes every little noise is painful. Ringing; roaring, buzzing, and singing, chirping like crickets in the ears. Dry catarrh of the middle ear. Hardness of hearing is not infrequently the result of this condition.

It gradually increases until there is total deafness, and the noises in the ear continue long after the patient has lost the ability to distinguish articulate sounds. Haemorrhage from the ear. Offensive, bloody, purulent discharges.

Nose: Frequent nosebleed in anemic patients. Here, again, the dryness and catarrhal conditions. Dry coryza; or fluent coryza, suppressed and causing violent head pains. Odors nauseate. Sensitiveness to the odors of flowers, cooking, tobacco.

Face: The face is withered, shrunken, sallow, anaemic, sickly. Red when the fever is on and sometimes when the chill is on, but in the apyrexia pale, sickly and sallow. Neuralgia of the face; tearing, rending, knifelike pains with the usual modalities.

The veins of the face are distended. This is frequently observed during the fever and sweat of the China intermittents.

Teeth: The teeth get loose, the gums swell. The teeth are painful while chewing; they feel too long. Toothache with every little cold.

Rending as if teeth were being pulled out, every time the child nurses at the breast. Exudations about the teeth and gums. Black, and foetid great putridity in the lower forms of fever.

Taste: The taste is extremely acute. Exaggerated so that nothing tastes natural.

“Bitter taste in the mouth.

Food tastes bitter or too salty.

Burning as from pepper on tip of the tongue.

Dryness in the mouth and throat.

Difficult swallowing.”

Sometimes there is canine hunger, but one of the most common features is loathing of everything; aversion to all food. The China patient is often passive in regard to eating.

Sits down to eat and the food tastes fairly good and he fills up. But it does not matter much whether he eats or not.

“Loathing and violent hunger.”

“Hunger and yet want of appetite.

Indifference to eating and drinking.

Only while eating some appetite and natural taste for food return.

Loss of appetite.

Aversion to all food.

Aversion to bread.”

His appetite varies. Thirst is peculiar. The patient will say:

“I know my chill is coming on now because I have thirst.”

Thirst: before the chill, but as soon as the chill comes on there is no thirst. But when he begins to warm up he begins to get thirsty; that I during the period in which the two lap he is thirsty, but when the chill has fairly subsided and the heat is upon him his thirst subsides also and he only wants to wet his mouth.

But as the hot spell begins to subside he increases the amount taken, and all through the sweat he can hardly get water enough.

Thirst before and after the chill and thirst during the sweat. No thirst during the chill. No thirst during the hot spell. You will cure more cases of intermittent fever with Ipecac and Nux vomica, than with China. China has well-defined chill, fever and sweat.

Stomach: Gastric symptoms from eating fish, fruit, and from drinking wine. Flatulent distension almost to bursting. There are constant eructations, loud and strong, and yet no relief, so extensive is the flatulence. In Carbo veg. after belching a little, there is relief. Lyc. has both.

Tympanitic distension of the abdomen and stomach in low forms of fever. Cannot move on account of soreness in the bowels. Vomiting of blood. Sometimes followed by dropsy of the extremities.

“Hiccough.

Nausea.

Vomiting.

Eructations, tasting of food, or they are bitter, sour.

Frequent vomiting.

Vomiting of sour mucus, bile, blood.”

Likely to occur at night. Pulsation in the stomach and rumbling. Cold feeling in the stomach. Fermentation after eating fruit. Acidity. Disorders of the stomach after milk.

Diarrhea: Copious, watery black discharges from the bowels. Gurgling and rumbling in the abdomen. Stool immediately after eating and at night. Great quantities of flatus expelled from the bowels. Diarrhea comes on gradually. Stools more and more watery. Chronic diarrhoea, with emaciation and aggravation at night. Petroleum has a chronic diarrhoea, but only in the daytime.

Genitals: Of the male genital organs the most striking feature is weakness, Of the female genital organs there is a different class of conditions. In the woman who has been subject to uterine haemorrhages you may look out at any moment for a sudden, sharp attack of inflammation of the ovaries.

Hemorrhage from the uterus. Prolapse. Menses, too early and too profuse; black, clotted blood; menstrual colic; metrorrhagia.

Pains and convulsions; convulsions come on in the midst of the haemorrhage; cramps in the uterus along with haemorrhage; labor-like pains; ringing in the ears; loss of sight; sliding down in bed. In confinement the lochia is profuse and lasts too long. Deterioration of health from prolonged lactation; toothache; neuralgia of the face.

Respiration: Difficult respiration, rattling and filling up of the chest with mucus asthma.

“Pressure in the chest, as from violent rush of blood; violent palpitation, bloody sputa, sudden prostration.”

Dry, suffocative cough at night; profuse night sweats. Pains in the chest, increasing sensitiveness to cold, heat and redness of the face with cold hands.

Along the spine there are sore spots. Tearing, darting pains in the limbs, ameliorated by heat and hard pressure, brought on by touch, by becoming chilled. Worse at night.

“Knees weak, especially when walking.”

China cures low, forms of fever, remittent or intermittent, typhoid or malarial.

Cyclamen
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 77 of 180
Source pages 1515–1525 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Remarks: Aversion to motion, yet motion ameliorates her pain and uneasiness. Aversion to the open air, yet open air ameliorates some symptoms especially the coryza and cough.

The marked dullness of the senses and special senses is a striking part of this picture.

Chlorosis; irregular menses; and palpitation. Stitching pains.

Weakness and aggravation from exertion. Flabby muscles.

Most symptoms ameliorated by walking. Very restless at night.

Great lassitude.

Weakness in the evening, ameliorated by moving about. Sensitive to cold, and cold air.

Complaints from being overheated.

Alternations of moods is a striking feature of the mental state. Great flow of ideas alternates with weak memory.

Joyous feeling alternating with irritability.

Serene humor changes suddenly into seriousness or peevishness. Grief and fear keep her in continuous mental agitation.

Dullness of mind prevents mental labor.

Absorbed in thought seeks solitude; thinks about the future. Answers incoherently, confusion of mind.

Aversion to work, and dread of open air.

Wants to remain in a warm room, and. in solitude.

Remains a long time silent. Excitement with trembling.

Sadness, as if she had wronged somebody (Aur.).

Tearful and meditates upon her grief, which is only imaginary.

Thinks she is alone in the world and persecuted by every one (China).

Obstinate and censorious. She grows steadily weaker; fainting spells come on; she becomes pale and anemic.

These symptoms are important if associated with scanty menses or amenorrhoea.

Vertigo when walking in the open air; objects turn in a circle; ameliorated in a room, and when sitting. Everything turns dark before the eyes, and she falls as if fainting.

Head: The pain in the head is stunning, and makes her fear she will lose her senses. Boring, darting, pressing in forehead and temples. Violent pains in the forehead.

Pains worse lying on painful side or back. Pains one-sided. Pain morning and evening, ameliorated by vomiting; worse by motion and in open air. Obscure vision with the pains. Pressure in vertex, as if brain were enveloped in a cloth, which would deprive him of his senses.

Headache with flickering before the eyes on rising in the morning. Pulsating in the head. Rush of blood to the head; anxiety and confusion of mind; obscuration of vision; vertigo; general coldness, after dinner. Headache ameliorated by cold applications. Headaches from disordered stomach. Head feels as if he had on a skull cap. Tearing pains in the scalp.

Senses: In the field of vision there are spots, fog, bluish colors, Flickerings, glittering objects; various colors – now yellow, and again green; fiery sparks, smoke; halo around the light, black specks or flies.

Dimness of vision. Diplopia. Convergent strabismus. Dilated pupils. Hemiopia. Heat and burning. Lids oedematous. Swelling of tipper lids, Dryness and itching of lids. Dim vision during headache. Impaired vision, smell, hearing and taste.

Dullness of hearing. Humming, ringing and roaring in the ears. Drawing pains.

Sense of smell diminished. Dryness in the nose. Dry, or fluent coryza, worse in a warm room, better in the open air or cool room. Sneezing and watery discharge in a warm room, entirely relieved in the open air. Walking in the cold open air is his most comfortable pastime. Pressing pain over nasal bone during coryza. Takes cold from being overheated and from overheated rooms.

Pale, sickly face; dark under the eyes in woman. Contracted forehead – a frown.

Dry lips. Numbness of upper lip.

Boring, stitching, tearing in the teeth. Jerking in the teeth at night. Taste is lost, or perverted; flat; bad; putrid; rancid; all food tastes too salty. Tongue white, or yellowish. Burning blisters on tongue.

Saliva increased. Burning, tip of tongue. Saliva tastes salty. Viscid mucus in the mouth.

Burning, dryness and scraping in the throat.

Loss of appetite and even aversion to food. Thirstless, except in the evening during fever. Desires lemonade (Nit. ac., Bell., Sab.).

Aversion to bread and butter, and fatty things; but desires inedible things.

Disgust for meat; craves sardines. Satiety after the first mouthful (Lyc.) and then he loathes food.

Stomach weak. Nausea after eating. Pork disagrees. The stomach symptoms are much like Pulsatilla. Symptoms worse after coffee. Vomiting after eating.

Vomiting in the morning. Vomiting watery mucus. Eructations. Aching in the stomach and burning in oesophagus, better by walking about. Fullness, as if he had eaten too much. Weight in the stomach after eating. Stitching pains in the stomach.

Abdomen: Colicky pains in the abdomen, ameliorated by walking about. Tenderness all over the abdomen, even hypogastrium. Gnawing pains in the evening. Gnawing pains after food. Rumbling and gurgling in the abdomen. Paroxysmal cramps during the night, ameliorated by walking about. Stitching pains in the abdomen and liver.

Diarrhoea after coffee. Diarrhoea in chlorotic women subject to sick headaches and menstrual irregularities. Watery, forcible stool, odorless, brownish, yellow. Diarrhoea in the evening. Constipation; stool hard. Nausea. Colic before stool. Colic and urging after stool. Hemorrhoids that bleed. Drawing, pressing pain about the anus, as if a spot would suppurate.

Urines: Frequent urging to urinate. Ineffectual urging to urinate. Urine profuse, watery. Flocculent sediment; iridescent cuticle. Stitching in the urethra with desire to urinate.

In the male the sexual desire is diminished. Irritable prostate gland, with stitching pains; urging to stool and urine (Nux).

Menses too soon, or too late; irregular, or suppressed; copious, prolonged, or scanty. When profuse, the mental symptoms are better. Flow black and clotted. Labor-like pains at the menstrual period, commencing in small of back and running down each side of the pubes.

Uterine haemorrhage. Dread of open air. Menses suppressed, palpitation of the heart, weeping, aversion to company and dread of open air. Rush of blood to the head, and scanty flow.

Suppressed menses from over-exertion, or being overheated. Faint, ing at the menstrual period. After menses, milk in mammae. Complaints after weaning (China).

Much scraping in the Larynx at night, thick, white mucus. Tickling in the larynx and trachea. Oppression of chest. Suffocative cough, caused by scraping and dryness in the trachea.

Cough comes on during sleep, from dryness and constriction of larynx. Cough ameliorated in the open air, even in a cold wind.

Pressure in the middle of the sternum. Weakness in the chest. Stitching in the chest and heart. Tearing, stitching, and shortness of breath during motion and rest.

Palpitation and anaemic murmurs. Tumultuous action of the heart; great lassitude. Weak pulse. Sensation as if air streamed from nipples. Mammae swollen, containing milk in non-pregnant women. Mammae swollen and very hard after menses.

Drawing pains in the neck, with stiffness. Twinges up the back, ameliorated by drawing the shoulders back. Stitching in the region of the right kidney, worse during inhalation. Pain in the small of the back while sitting, ceases on rising.

Tearing, drawing pains in the limbs. Hyperesthesia of the skin. Flabby muscles. Tearing, drawing in the upper limbs. Sensation of weakness of the hands, as if she must let fall what she holds in her hands. Writer’s cramp.

Drawing pains in flexors of the leg. Burning sore pain in heels. Toes feel dead after walking. Weakness in the limbs.

Sleep not restful, disturbed by anxious dreams; frightful, vivid dreams, Restless sleep. Late falling asleep. Wakens early, but wants to sleep late. Nightmare. Wakens early, but too tired and sleepy, cannot rise. Pollutions in dreams.

Chill, fever and sweat. Chill not ameliorated by warm clothing. Chilliness during menses. Chill forenoon or evening. Chill predominates in the evening. Heat of face follows chill. Chill and heat alternate.

Sensation of heat through whole body, particularly in face and hands. Heat, with swelling of the veins (China). General heat after eating. Sweat at night during sleep, offensive, Sweat sometimes on lower part of body.

Itching at night in bed. Numbness after scratching, or changing places by scratching.

Editorial notes

• “Floculent sediment” corrected to “Flocculent sediment” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Chininum Arsenicosum
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 61 of 180
Source pages 1305–1321 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

Complaints come on at night. Open air aggravates most complaints. General increasing anemia. Inflamed parts turn black. Chlorosis. Sensitive to cold, and complaints are worse from cold and from becoming cold. Tendency to take cold.

This is a useful remedy in weakly constitutions. Cold, pale, emaciated people. In prolonged suppuration; after haemorrhages.

Chronic diarrhea, when the weakness is the most prominent feature. Fullness of blood vessels. Dropsy in sacs, or edema. Emaciation. Cannot sustain a physical exertion. Faints on slight provocation.

Modalities: Wants to be warm; wants warm drinks and warm food. Warm room ameliorates. Wants to lie down. Aversion to motion. Stitching and tearing pains. Periodicity is most marked. Pulsation all over the body. Pulse fast, feeble and irregular. Relaxed and flabby (Calc.).

Sensitive to pain. Many symptoms come during sleep. Standing increases many symptoms.

Sensitive to touch. Trembling. Walking in the open air aggravates. Weakness from walking. Complaints come on in windy, stormy weather.

Mind: Easily angered, and refuses to talk or to answer questions. Anxiety day and night, but worse in the evening, worse during chill; anxiety with fear. Anxiety during fever, even becomes wild.

Anxiety on waking. Desires things which he cares nothing for after he gets them. Becomes critical with his most intimate friends. Complaining. Confusion of mind in the morning on waking.

Over conscientious about trifles (Silicea, Thuja). Delirious at night; after haemorrhage. Many imaginations, illusions of fancy; sees images, frightful images. Despair during chill, heat and suffering. Discontented with everything. Discouraged easily, and faint hearted.

Dulness of mind. Becomes excited over small matters. Exaltation of fancy. Fear at night that evil will come to him; fear of ghosts. Forgetful. Mind overwhelmed with ideas at night. Impatience in intermittent fever. Becomes indifferent to all enjoyment. Aversion to work.

Irritable during chill, and on waking. jumps out of bed during the fever. Moaning during the chill and the fever. Loathing of life. Weakness of memory. He is easily offended, and looks for insults.

Great restlessness at night, and during fever. Anxious restlessness, driving him out of bed; driving to despair. Extreme sadness, especially during chill and fever, and sometimes during the sweat. Oversensitiveness to noise, and in general.

Sentimental. Mental symptoms from sexual excesses, and loss of vital fluids. Refuses to talk, and remains silent. Sits by the hour in silence without moving. Wandering speech. Starting on falling asleep, and waking as from fright.

Lies in bed in a state of stupefaction in low forms of fever. Suicidal disposition. Suspicious. Persistent thoughts, Timid. Weary of life. Weeping.

The chilliness is brought on by thinking of it. The headache is worse by mental exertion.

Vertigo comes in the evening, with nausea; while walking in the open air.

Head: Cerebral congestion with great heat of the head. The forehead becomes cold and covered with sweat. Constriction of the head. Great beat in the forehead. Heaviness in the head in the morning. Motion is felt in the brain on moving the head.

Sensation of rushing in the brain, down right side of the neck and arm becoming convulsive, and ending in real convulsion. Violent darting pains in the head preventing sleep. Pain in the whole head.

Pain: in the morning on waking, in then afternoon, but most severe at night. Night headaches. Cold air brings on the head pains.

The scalp is sensitive to touch, to combing the hair, and to binding up the hair during the suffering. Catarrhal headache. Pain very severe during the chill and heat, but ameliorated as the sweat becomes free. Pains worse or brought on from becoming cold.

With coryza the pain is violent; worse coughing or jarring, after eating. Hammering headaches. Headaches during menses.

Mental exertion aggravates the headache. Nervous headache, and headache from excitement or noise. Paroxysmal pains. Periodical headaches; headache every two weeks.

Pulsating pains. Pains worse walking. Neuralgic pains, worse in left side, ameliorated by rubbing. Aching felt deep in the head. Pains in the forehead, mostly on the right side; in occiput after sleep; in sides of head in the evening; in temples and forehead in vertex.

Bruised pain all over the head after fever, and after sleep. Burning pain in left occipital region extending down the neck in the morning. Bursting pain. Pressing pain. Pressing in the forehead over the eyes. Pressing in the occiput and temples. Stitching and tearing pains in the head. Perspiration on the forehead. Complaints come on from uncovering the head in cold air.

Eyes: Inflamed eyes. Lachrymation. Intense photophobia and spasms of orbicularis muscles. Gushing hot tears. Large ulcers on each eye, worse from midnight until 3 A.M. Scrofulous ophthalmia, worse after 1 A.M.

Flickering before the left eye. Pain in the eyes at night. Burning pains, Pressing. Sunken eyes. Dim vision. Sparks before the eyes. Weak vision.

Ears: Noises in the ears; buzzing, humming, ringing, roaring, singing. Stitching in the ears. Earache. Pain burning, stitching, tearing. Hearing acute. Hearing impaired.

Nose: Coryza with discharge. Dry coryza. Nasal catarrh with bloody discharge, or purulent discharge. Dryness in the nose.

Epistaxis. Nose obstructed. Sneezing. Excoriation of the corners of the nose. Especially useful for periodical coryza and frequent taking cold in the nose which keeps a catarrh in constant activity.

Face, mouth and tongue: Chlorotic face. Cracked lips., Bluish lips. Pale earthy face. Circumscribed red cheeks with pale face. Sickly color of face. jaundiced face. Expression anxious.

The pains of the face are worse in the open air; burning, tearing. Periodical pains. Swelling of submaxillary and parotid glands. Perspiration cold, Oedema of face, Ulceration of the lips.

Burning canker sores in the mouth. Bleeding from mucous membranes of the mouth. Cracked tongue, Tongue black, brown, white or yellow. Dry mouth and tongue.

Hot mouth. Burning rawness of the tongue. Sore tongue. Salivation. Swollen gums and tongue. Taste bad, bitter while eating; insipid, metallic, saltish, sour, sweetish.

Vesicles on the tongue.

Teeth: Pain in the teeth at night, < by biting the teeth together, from touch; cold drinks. Pains come on periodically, are jerking, pulsating, tearing, and date back to malarial fever.

Throat: Contraction in the throat. Dryness in the throat. Gangrenous inflammation of the throat with putrid odor, in malignant scarlet fever.

The throat feels hot. This remedy has been used in diphtheria when the exudation was blackish, and putrid odor from the mouth. Great pain on swallowing.

Burning in the throat. Stitching in the throat on swallowing. Difficult swallowing. Swollen throat. Constant clearing of the throat.

Stomach: Appetite diminished, or ravenous. No appetite for breakfast. Strong appetite without relish of food. Aversion to rich food and fats; aversion to food, to meat. Desires wine; cold drinks, sour things, sweet things.

Sensation of coldness in the stomach. Emptiness, better by eating. Eructations after eating, bitter, empty, of food, sour. Water brash. Sensation of fullness after eating. Heartburn. Great weight in the stomach after eating. Hiccough. Stomach easily disordered.

Cannot digest eggs or fish. Water tastes bitter. Nausea after eating, during headache. Pain in the stomach from coughing; after eating. Burning; cramping; pressing, soreness; stitching, tearing. Pulsating. Retching with cough. Strong thirst, in the evening, during perspiration; for small drinks during heat. Vomiting at night, on coughing, after drinking, after eating, with headache; of bile black, blood, food, mucus; sour; water.

Nausea and vomiting followed by sleep. Sudden inclination to vomit at 2 P.M. Sensation of coldness in the abdomen during chill. Distension morning, after eating, tympanitis, ascites; enlarged liver and spleen from malarial influences.

Abdomen: Flatulence in intermittent fever. Fullness in the abdomen. Hardness of the liver. Heaviness as from a load in the abdomen after eating. Great pain in the abdomen during chill, like colic; during diarrhoea; after eating; before stool; ameliorated by lying on the abdomen. Great pain in the region of the liver, in the hypogastrium, in the region of the umbilicus. The kinds of pain in the abdomen are burning, cramping, cutting, dragging; soreness stitching. Much rumbling and tension.

Constipation, with hard, knotty stools. Diarrhea, morning, afternoon, NIGHT, after midnight; after cold drinks; from taking cold; AFTER EATING; after fruit; in hot weather. Dysentery. Much flatus, offensive. Bleeding from anus. Hemorrhoids. Involuntary stool and urine.

Itching of the anus. Moisture about the anus. Pain in the anus during stool. Burning in the anus during diarrhea, during stool. Pressing pain. Stitching. Paralytic weakness of the rectum. Ineffectual urging to stool.

Stool bilious, black, bloody, clay colored, copious, frequent, LIENTERIC, offensive, liquid, water. Diarrhea with intermittent fever.

Spasmodic retention of urine. Urging to urinate, frequent, ineffectual. Involuntary urination at night; after stool. Urine albuminous, bloody, burning; cloudy on standing; dark, greenish, pale, copious at night, offensive, scanty. Sediment is red and sandy. Sugar. Clear watery urine.

Erections feeble. Seminal emissions.

Itching of vulva. Leucorrhea, excoriating, bloody, copious, after menses, offensive, thin. Menses absent; copious, dark, too frequent, offensive, painful, pale, protracted; suppressed. Uterine haemorrhage. Prolapsus.

Catarrh of larynx and trachea. Rawness in larynx. Soreness in larynx. Hoarseness; rough voice.

Respiration quick, asthmatic, deep, difficult in evening and night; difficult with cough; difficult while lying; rattling; short. Suffocation. Wheezing. Whistling. Suffocation in the forenoon during phthisis. Must sit bent forward by an open window in the attack of suffocation, worse in any other position. Every day at 9 A.M. Suffocation.

Cough, morning, afternoon, evening, night; after midnight; asthmatic, from deep breathing; from full feeling in chest; during chill. Dry cough, at night, during fever. Cough exhausting. Cough during fever. Hacking cough. Irritation in larynx and trachea.

Loose cough. Motion aggravates the cough. Short cough. Spasmodic cough. Suffocative cough. Talking aggravates the cough. Tickling in air passages causes cough. Expectoration bloody, copious; difficult; mucus, offensive, purulent; tastes bitter, flat, salty. Expectoration is viscid, white.

Anxiety in chest, region of heart. Constriction. Hemorrhage of lungs. Oppression of chest. Angina pectoris with dropsical symptoms. Pain in the chest, during cough. Pains in the sides of the chest. Rawness in the chest. Stitching in the chest on coughing, Stitching in the heart. Palpitation of the heart, anxious, aggravated on slight exertion, leaning back against chair; violent. Sensation as if heart ceased to beat. Full pulse. Weakness in chest. Weakness of respiratory muscles. Violent pain in left mammary region, as though part were torn with red hot tongs. Aching in region of seventh rib on inspiration.

Coldness of the back at night. Eruptions on the back. Pain in the back, during chill. Pain in the cervical region, in scapula, between scapula, in lumbar region; in sacral region, in spine. Aching; brushed; drawing; soreness in spine; tearing. Stiffness in cervical region. Weak feeling in back.

Limbs: Limbs icy cold. Upper limbs cold. Cold hands and feet. Cold knees. Cold legs. Cramps in calves. Blueness of finger nails. Eruption on limbs. Excoriation between thighs. Heaviness of limbs, of lower limbs. After prolonged suppuration in hip joint disease. Stitching in limbs, in lower limbs.

Weakness of limbs, forearms, lower limbs, legs. Gooseflesh on lower limbs with chilliness. Palms hot and dry. Pain in limbs, rheumatic, in the joints; gouty joints. Pain in the upper limbs, shoulders. Pain in the knees. Aching pains in all the limbs.

Wandering aching pains. Aching of the biceps of left arm. Pain in flexors of left forearm, in radial side near elbow. Burning in the limbs, in the feet. Drawing pain in the limbs, upper limbs; thighs, knees, feet. Stitching in shoulders; upper arms, hips, thighs, knees, feet.

Tearing pain in the limbs; upper limbs, shoulders, elbows, wrist, hand, fingers; lower limbs, thighs, legs, ankles, feet. Restlessness of the limbs; lower limbs, legs, feet. Stiffness of the limbs, hands, fingers; lower limbs. Dropsical swelling of the hands and feet. Trembling of the limbs; hands; lower limbs. Weakness of the lower limbs. Weakness of the limbs, joints, upper limbs; lower limbs, knees, thighs.

Sleep: Sleep deep. Sleep during fever. Dreams anxious, of death, frightful misfortune, vexatious, vivid. Falling asleep late, restless until 3 A.M. Restless sleep. Sleepiness afternoon, evening. Sleeplessness, before midnight. Sleep is unrefreshing. Wakens too early, frequently. Yawns much.

Intermittent fever. CHILL, morning, forenoon, noon, AFTERNOON evening, night, midnight; open air; walking in the open air; anticipating; in bed. Drinking aggravates chill. Quotidian chill; quotidian or tertian. Hard, shaking chill. Chill like cold waves with gooseflesh all over body. Warm room ameliorates. External warmth ameliorates.

High fever follows chill. Fever without chill afternoon and evening. Fever and chill alternate. Burning fever. Feverish all the time, but more so at night. Dry heat at night. Hectic fever. Heat during sleep. Chill, heat, then sweat. During the beat be desires to uncover.

Perspiration, morning, night; during anxiety. COLD; from coughing; with weakness; during slight exertion; following fever; from motion; PROFUSE; during sleep; after waking; staining linen yellow. Fevers from living in damp rooms. Malarial fevers. Symptoms increase while perspiring. Fevers with extreme prostration.

Skin: Anaesthesia of the skin. Burning. Cold skin. Bluish discoloration; pale; yellow; jaundice every summer. Dryness. Burning eruptions, boils, pimples. Urticaria after scratching. Vesicles. Formication. Gooseflesh, itching, burning. Skin very sensitive, a feeling of soreness. Sticking. Dropsical swelling of skin. Ulcers, burning, sensitive, stinging.

Editorial notes

• “opthalmia” corrected to “ophthalmia” (transcription error in the digital source text).

Cicuta Virosa
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 62 of 180
Source pages 1322–1331 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)

This remedy is of interest because of its convulsive tendency. It puts the whole nervous system in such a state of increased irritability that pressure on a part causes convulsions. The convulsions extend from center to circumference; the head, face and eyes are first affected.

Convulsions: An aura in the stomach gives warning of the convulsion. Some complaints spread from the chest, especially from the heart; the rigors and chills begin in the chest; and there is a sensation of coldness about the heart; and from there it extends to other parts.

Convulsions often begin about the head and throat and extend downward. The whole body is in such a state of tension that, after excitement, a fire rages throughout the economy and causes convulsions. Any irritation in the throat or oesophagus will cause violent convulsions in this region.

On swallowing a fish bone, instead of only a pricking sensation as would occur in phlegmatic individuals, the irritation is so great that a spasm commences and spreads to other parts. It was the old remedy for tetanus and spasms caused by splinters in the skin or under the nails, competing with Bell. At the present day we find the most frequently indicated remedies for injuries to nerves are Led. and Hyper.

Catalepsy: A peculiar feature about some of the symptoms is that they resemble catalepsy. The cataleptic condition may be present or a condition very similar to it. He recollects nothing that took place or that he said during a certain period. He knows nobody, and lies without recognizing anyone, but when asked questions he answers correctly, and subsequently he has no recollection of what took place.

It is a cerebro-spinal irritant; the head is drawn back opisthotonos all the limbs are convulsed and rigid. It has cured traumatic tetanus lockjaw, epilepsy, epileptiform convulsions.

With severe pains in the bowels come convulsive movements and convulsions. if the stomach is disordered or chilled, or if he has fear or other mental conditions, convulsions come on. He is extremely sensitive to touch, and touch and drafts bring on convulsions.

The convulsions spread from above downwards, and thus it is the opposite of Cuprum. The convulsions of Cupr. spread from the extremities to the centre; i. e., the little convulsions, merely cramps, are first felt in the fingers and then in the hands and later in the chest and whole body.

In Cicuta the little convulsions of the head, eyes and throat spread down the back to the extremities with violent contortions. The convulsions of Secale sometimes begin in the face.

At times he knows no one, but when touched and spoken to he answers correctly. Suddenly consciousness returns and he remembers nothing of what has occurred. He confuses the present with the past. He imagines himself a young child. Everything is confused and strange. He does not know where he is.

The faces of old friends look strange; he looks at them and wonders if they are the same persons he used to know. His house and familiar places look strange. Voices sound strange. The senses of sight and smell and all the other special senses are disturbed and confused. He is confused as to himself, his age and circumstances. A woman on coming out of the cataleptic attacks often takes on childish behavior.

A man thinks that he is a child and acts like one; silly laughter, playing with toys, and other acts of childish behavior. He feels as if he were in a strange place, and this causes fear. Thinks of the future with anxiety. Mental torpor; loss of ideas and sensation extending over a certain period. Memory a blank for hours or days with or without convulsions.

Convulsions generally take the place of the ecstatic or cataleptic condition. Natr. m. is somewhat similar to the mental condition of this remedy, as the Natr. m. patient goes about doing all her household work and other functions and next day knows nothing about it. Nux mos. is another remedy that has such a complete blank when going about doing things, a complete abstraction of mind.

Desires: This patient has strange desires; desires to eat coal and many other strange articles, because he is unable to distinguish between things edible and things unfit to be eaten; eats coal and raw potatoes.

Mind: Wants to be alone; dislike to society. Singing, shouting, dancing; likes toys, jumps about like a child. Lies in bed lamenting and wailing. Great agitation; child grasps at one’s clothing in a frightened manner.

This is likely to occur before the convulsion, great horror in the, countenance, yet he has no recollection of the horror when be comes out of the convulsion. That state of anxiety and fear comes after the attack has begun, though the convulsions have not yet come on.

Between the convulsions the patient is mild, gentle, placid and yielding, which distinguishes it from Strych. and Nux v. convulsions. The Nux convulsions are all over the body and are worse from touch and draft, blueness and purple color of the body, but between the convulsions the patient is very irritable.

Of course, when they go out of one convulsion into another you cannot see this, but when out of the convulsion the Nux patient is very irritable. The Cicuta patient, out of the convulsion, is full of sadness, anxiety, and darkness, borrows trouble from the future, is affected by sad stories, is pessimistic.

He is afraid of society, afraid of company, and wants to be alone. He is suspicious and shuns people; despises others; over-estimation of himself. In this it approximates Plat. but there is no further resemblance between the two remedies.

Full of fear; fright will bring on convulsions, like Op., Ign., and Acon.

Vertigo: Full of vertigo. The whole sensorium is violently excited. Things turn around in a circle. Vertigo on walking, glassy eyes, etc. Complaints brought on from injuries to the skull, from blows on the head. Many times there is no trouble in the region of the injury; there may be compression and yet all the pains be in distant parts; drawing of the muscles and cramps.

Concussion of the brain and chronic injuries therefrom, especially spasms. Semi-lateral headaches forcing the patient to sit still erect.

Head: Headache as if the brain were loose on walking. When thinking of the exact nature of the pain it ceased. It has cured cerebro-spinal meningitis when there were convulsions and the convulsions were aggravated from touch, with fever and even spotted mottled skin. Mind and head symptoms after injuries. On going into a cerebro-spinal meningitis the patient sits in a chair talking as if nothing were wrong, when, quick as a flash, he passes into another state in which be knows no one; he falls over limp, he is put to bed, and though he answers questions he remains in a semi conscious state, knowing no one.

This may change into a spasm. The head is bent back in spasms; jerking back of the head; spasms begin in the head and go downward. Violent shocks in the head, arms and legs. Head hot and extremities cold, like Bell. in its convulsions. Sweat on the scalp when sleeping. Child rolls head from side to side. Hot head.

Eyes: Convulsive action about the eyes; pupils dilated and insensible patient lies fixed in one place, with starting, fixed, glassy, upturned eyes, like Cupr.

Strabismus may be the only spasm the child is subject to from cerebral irritation. Every time the child is frightened it has strabismus; when touched or when it has cold, or after a fall biting the head, or coming periodically, it has strabismus.

Nose: The nose is sensitive to touch. Touch and jarring bring on complaints, and hence it was so useful in, and was the first remedy for, the result of injuries and irritability and over-sensibility.

It has troubles from shaving; it is useful in such eruptions as come in the whiskers; barber’s itch; a solid crop of eruptions all over the face wherever the whiskers grow. Eruptions on the cheek like eczema. Swelling of the submaxillary glands. Erysipelatous eruptions.

It is closely related to Conium about the lips and lids, in that a small amount of pressure causes induration. It has cured epithelioma of the lips.

Throat: The throat troubles are mostly spasmodic. After swallowing a fish bone or stick which lodges in the throat a spasm comes on. After Cicuta the spasms will cease and it can be taken out. It is useful in cases of injury, accompanied with violent choking, so that be cannot allow an examination to be made.

Chest: Cold sensation in the chest. Spasms of the chest.

Feels as if the heart stopped beating. Spasmodic symptoms of the back.

Opisthotonos. All conditions of the limbs are of a spasmodic character.

Editorial notes

• “cerebo-spinal” corrected to “cerebro-spinal” (transcription error in the digital source text).
• “touch arid” corrected to “touch and” (transcription error in the digital source text).