Pulsatilla
From Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica by James Tyler Kent, A.M., M.D. – Lecture 148 of 180
Source pages 2642–2692 of the Nalanda Digital Library edition (public domain)
It is said to be a very good medicine for women, for blondes, especially for tearful blondes.
Mind: It is one of the polychrests and one of the medicines most frequently used, as well as often abused.
The Pulsatilla patient is an interesting one, found in any household where there are plenty of young girls.
She is tearful, plethoric, and generally has little credit for being sick from her appearances; yet she is most nervous, fidgety, changeable, easily led and easily persuaded. While she is mild, gentle and tearful, yet she is remarkably irritable, not in the sense of pugnacity, but easily irritated, extremely touchy, always feels slighted or fears she will be slighted; sensible to every social influence.
Melancholia, sadness, weeping, despair, religious despair, fanatical; full of notions and whims; imaginative; extremely excitable. She imagines the company of the opposite sex a dangerous thing to cultivate, and that it is dangerous to do certain things well established in society as good for the human race.
These imaginations belong to eating as well as thinking. They imagine that milk is not good to drink, so they will not take it. They imagine that certain articles of diet are not good for the human race. Aversion to marriage is a strong symptom. A man takes it into his head that it is an evil thing to have sexual intercourse with his wife and abstains from it.
Religious freaks; an especial tendency to dwell on religious notions; fixed ideas concerning the Scripture; he misuses and misapplies the Scriptures to his own detriment; dwells on sanctification until he becomes fanatical and insane; thinks he is in a wonderfully sanctification state of mind, or that he has sinned away his day of grace.
This goes no until he becomes insane on other subjects, and then the tendency is to sit day after day in a taciturn way. He will not answer questions unless hard pressed, when all he will say is “Yes” or “No,” or be will merely shake his head. Puerperal insanity in a woman who was mild, gentle and tearful, later sad and taciturn, and then she sits in her chair all day answering nothing or merely nodding her head for “Yes” or “No.”
Many of the complaints are associated with weakness of the stomach and indigestion, or with menstrual disorders. Women who abort; various irregularities of the menstrual flow; false conception. The mental symptoms are often associated with the ovarian and uterine difficulties.
With such a mental state the general state of the body is worse in a warm room and, relieved by motion. Tearful, sad and despondent, ameliorated walking in the open air, especially when it is crisp, cool, fresh and bright.
Suffocation and an increase of the pains, and even chilliness in a warm room; a nervous chilliness when the patient perspires from the heat of a room. The inflammatory symptoms, neuralgias and rheumatisms are relieved by a cold, by eating and drinking cold things, by cold applications, or cold hands. Cold drinks relieve, even though the patient is not thirsty. Cold foods are digested while hot food make the body warm from which symptoms are worse. Ice cold water feels good going down the oesophagus, and is retained in the stomach, though there is not thirst.
Modalities: Many symptoms worse after eating. It is often only a lump in the stomach, but the mental and nervous symptoms also are worse after eating. The stomach symptoms are worse in the morning, the mental symptoms worse in the evening. Aggravation from fats and rich foods.
Complaints brought ort by eating fat, pork, greasy things. cakes, pastries and rich things. The Pulsatilla stomach is slow to digest. Hours after eating there is a sense of fullness in the stomach, a lump in the stomach, ameliorated by slow walking in the open air.
The patient is commonly relieved from slow motion in the open air, becomes frantic when trying to keep still, worse during rest, ameliorated by doing something, generally slow, moderate motion. This relief from motion and aggravation from rest, relief in the open air, and aggravation in a warm room give us a good summary of this beautiful remedy.
In Pulsatilla patients the skin feels feverish and hot, while the temperature of the body is normal, There is aggravation from much clothing; she wants to wear a thin dress even in moderately cold weather. Does not need to dress warmly. Much clothing and covering aggravate. Often be cannot wear flannels or woolen clothing because they irritate the skin, causing itching and eruptions like Sulphur, and this is not surprising, as Pulsatilla and Sulphur are antidotes.
There is no remedy like Pulsatilla to antidote Sulphur when it has been used every Spring to “cleanse the blood.”
Some people use Sulphur until the skin becomes red, hot, easily irritated, and aggravated by clothing. Pulsatilla is the antidote. Old cases of psoriasis; little flat, brownish patches about the size of the thumb nail, which itch tremendously, in old Sulphur patients are cured by Pulsatilla.
A general feature of the skin is itching and burning, but a more marked Pulsatilla state is a Lachesis appearance of the skin. It is mottled, erysipelatous; spotted, purplish in spots; veins engorged; capillaries tumid; a vasomotor paralysis of the capillaries or veins producing a mottled appearance. Pulsatilla has an unusually venous constitution.
Veins: The veins are engorged, in a state of stasis, hence there is over-heat of the skin. This unusual fullness, redness and purple aspect of the face is a false plethora. it often goes on to a puffiness and swelling, and especially at the menstrual periods. Considerable bloating of the face and eyes, bloating of the abdomen; feet puffed so that she cannot wear shoes, feet red and swollen at the menstrual period, ameliorated by the menstrual flow.
Many women are late and are preparing for a week or ten days; face purple, red, puffed and bloated; abdomen distended; dyspnoea; and all this is relieved by the menstrual flow. She feels these symptoms perhaps one or two weeks, and is relieved by slow motion in the open air. Cannot breathe in a warm room; wants the windows open; chokes and suffocates in a warm bed at night. This increases until the menstrual flow starts. The stomach is so full and distended that she cannot eat. No appetite or desire for food.
With the engorgement of veins ulcers surrounded by varicose veins are common in this remedy. Ulcers bleed black blood which coagulates early; little black clots; bleeding is not copious; clots easily, dark, tarry, offensive. Ulcers bleed and ooze, discharge a bloody watery fluid or there is a very thick yellow or green flow.
This brings us to the catarrhal state. Wherever there is mucous membrane there is catarrh. The mucous membrane is covered with purple spots, dry spots; tumid, puffed, looks erysipelatous. Wherever there is inflammation of the mucous membrane it looks purple; a venous congestion.
Thick, green, yellow catarrhal discharges are most characteristic. The catarrhal discharges are bland with the exception of that from the vagina, which is excoriating, causing rawness of the parts. From the eyes, ears, nose and chest there arc thick, yellow, green, bland, discharges, but there is thick yellow green excoriating leucorrhoea. Remember, however, that Pulsatilla has a bland leucorrhoea, in keeping with the general state. Discharges are often offensive, sometimes bloody, watery, but even then mingled with yellow green purulent fluid.
Eyes: The Pulsatilla patient suffers from vertigo from affections of the eyes, ameliorated by wearing well-adjusted glasses; attended by nausea which is worse lying down, worse from motion, worse from the motion of the eyes, and ameliorated in a cold room, and by riding in a carriage in the cold air. As soon as she enters a room that is warm she has nausea, even to vomiting. Vertigo with vomiting after eating.
Head: Pulsatilla has violent headaches. Headaches in school girls who are about to menstruate. Headache accompanying menstruation. Headache associated with suppressed menses, with menstrual disorders; not caused from them, but associated with them.
Pains through the temples and sides of the head are common Pulsatilla headaches. Headaches before, during and after menstruation; but more commonly before, when there is a general state of congestion, stasis, and tumefaction of the veins, and amelioration of the headache when the menses set in if the flow is normal.
It is common to have the head and nervous symptoms through the menses, because the flow is so scanty, often little more than a leucorrhoea, and for a single day a little clot of dark blood.
One-sided headaches and one-sided complaints are peculiar to Pulsatilla. Perspiration on one side of head and face; fever on one side of the body; one side cool and normal and the other side hot. I remember a case of puerperal fever with sweat on one side of the body and dry heat on the other and confusion of other symptoms. Pulsatilla was given and the patient recovered.
The Pulsatilla headache is a throbbing congestive headache; much, heat in the head, ameliorated by the application of cold, by external pressure, and sometimes by slow motion, aggravated by lying and sitting quiet, ameliorated by walking slowly in the air; becomes worse towards evening and gradually increases through the evening and night, worse from the motion of the eyes and from stooping. The pains are often constricting, throbbing and congestive. Periodic sick headaches, with vomiting of sour food. Headache when be overeats. Though he likes ice cream, he has headache and congestion of the stomach after eating ice cream.
Eyes. Catarrhal symptoms. Pustules about the lids and over the ball; on the cornea. Inflammatory features. Thick, yellow-green pus. Granular lids. Continued formation of little pustules. Isolated granules on lids, grow out here and therein bunches as large as pin leads. Eyelids inflamed and bleed easily. Every time he catches cold it settles in the eyes and nose.
Eyes red, inflamed, and discharge, In infants catarrhal diseases of the eyes of a gonorrheal character; ophthalmia neonatorum. In early days the infant often needs the same constitutional remedy as the mother. Yellow green discharge from the eyes; eyes are ameliorated by washing in warm water, or tepid water; even cold water feels good to the eyes.
The Sulphur patient is made worse by bathing; the eyes smart, burn and become increasingly red after washing in water. Pulsatilla causes a tendency to the formation of styes; recurrent styes; always having styes. Pustules, papules and little nodosities on the lids.
Prior to menstruation, in young girls especially, things get black, before the eyes, like a gauze or a veil. Nervous manifestations, twitchings, spell of blindness and fainting. In the early stages of paralysis of the optic nerve Pulsatilla is a great remedy. The patient is always rubbing the eyes; whether or not there is mucus in the eyes it matters not; but it is a sensation of gauze before the eyes, ameliorated by rubbing.
Pulsatilla has cured incipient cataract. Itching of the eyes, in keeping with the skin symptoms. Itching in the ears, nose, tickling in the throat, in the larynx.
Ears: In the ears we have the same catarrhal condition.
Thick, yellow, offensive, purulent, bland discharge; very foetid, sometimes bloody. Pulsatilla is commonly indicated in earache of children; when the child, is a gentle, fat, plump, vascular red-faced child always pitifully crying. If it is a case of earache in a nondescript child Pulsatilla will also prove to be a temporary remedy, so closely is it related to pain in the ear. Pains in the ears in the evening or in the night, ameliorated by walking slowly about the room.
In Chamomilla you have a snap. ping and snarling child, never pleased, scolds the nurse and mother ameliorated by walking about. The irritability decides for Chamomilla. You can detect a pitiful cry from a snarling mad cry. Both are ameliorated by motion, by being carried. Both want this and that and are never satisfied; they want amusement. But the Pulsatilla child when not amused has a pitiful cry and the Chamomilla child a snarling cry. You will want to caress the one and spank the other.
Ear troubles with a ruptured drum and no healing; otitis media. Abscess in the middle ear; inflammation of the middle ear; copious thick bloody discharge, then yellow-green. The case goes on night and day until rupture takes place. I have found this condition as an endemic, in which Merc., Hep.., and Puls. were the most frequently indicated remedies.
Ear troubles following eruptive diseases. Offensive catarrhal discharge dating back to scarlet fever or measles; badly treated and drugged patients. Inflammation and swelling of the external ear; erysipelatous purple conditions. Scabs on the tragus.
Nose: The patient is subject to repeated attacks of coryza, with sneezing and stuffing up of the nose; a febrile state; sometimes with chills, fever and sweat.
Pains in the face through the nose. In the evening considerable watery discharge with sneezing; in the morning stuffing up of the nose with thick yellow-green discharge. Pulsatilla is suitable to chronic catarrhs, with thick yellow-green discharge which is bland; stuffing up of the nose; copious discharge; patient has a bad smell in the nose; smells various offensive things, sometimes like manure, but more commonly described as the offensiveness of a stinking catarrh.
Large bloody, thick, yellow crusts accumulate in the nose, harden down and are blown out in the morning, accompanied by thick yellow pus. In old lingering cases, loss of smell and taste. The mucous membrane is in a state of thickening and suppuration, with the formation of crusts and ulcers. Fullness high in the nose; stuffing up and fullness in the posterior nares. Hawks up thick yellow mucus in masses, with crusts in the morning, very often offensive to others.
Many Pulsatilla patients in this catarrhal state get relief from this horrible stench by blowing out great crusts. Thick clinkers of dried up pus or dried mucus and pus accumulate for several days and this terrible catarrhal smell comes on; but as soon as he blows out these clinkers the odor goes away and he has relief until they form again in a few days.
The patient himself feels better in the open air, and worse in a warm room. He breathes better in the open air; feels stuffy in a warm room. But there are times when his nose stuffs up more in a warm room, where he sneezes more in a warm room,
The loss of smell is present in chronic and acute catarrhs. Much stuffing up of the nose occurring in the evening; he blows the nose easily and cleans it out during the day, but it stuffs up in the evening and he cannot clear it out.
Remember that the mental symptoms are worse in the evening. He gets up in the morning with a stuffed up nose, but can clean it out; his mouth is foul, tongue coated, rancid taste, requires much brushing of his teeth and washing out of his mouth before he can take his breakfast.
So you see the mouth and stomach symptoms are worse in the morning, the mental symptoms are worse in the evening and there is also a stuffing up of the nose in the evening. Compare this with the cough. There is a dry evening cough in Pulsatilla and a loose morning cough.
Copious expectoration in the morning, but a dry, tight, constricted feeling in the chest in the evening. Stuffed up in the evening, making breathing difficult. To repeat, then, Pulsatilla is one of our sheet anchors in old catarrhs with loss of smell, thick yellow discharge, and amelioration in the open air; in the nervous, timid, yielding, with stuffing up of the nose at night and copious flow in the morning.
With the catarrhs and acute colds there is often bleeding of the nose, blowing blood from the nose; the crusts cling tight, and when blown out they are torn loose, and this causes bleeding; but the nose bleeds easily, subject to epistaxis. Nose-bleed during the menstrual period; nose-bleed before the menstrual period; nose-bleed with suppressed menses; bleeding dark, thick, clotted, almost black, venous blood.
Especially do we find catarrhal subjects in women who have late, scanty, light colored menses; scarcely more than a leucorrhoea; if bloody, then only a little black stain or clot. Chlorotic patients who have their menses once every two or three months; chlorotic girls who are irregular, and are subject to these catarrhal states.
Pulsatilla is very useful in hay fever. The management of hay fever requires considerable study because you have to deal with the troublesome imaginations of the patient, he will refuse to let you study him; he wants the hay fever treated; he don’t want the hemorrhoids, the thick skin on the soles of the feet, the pains in the sacrum, the diarrhea which alternates with constipation, talked about or inquired into; these are always better when the hay fever is present.
Sometimes he will tell you that he is always well except when he has hay fever. He may feel well, but it is impossible for him to be well; he has always had these complaints and he does not want you to bother with them. The hay fever will hardly ever reveal the indications for a remedy for the patient.
Another individual has epilepsy, and if you expect to find in the fit the remedy that cures the patient you will be mistaken. When an acute mimicking manifestation of disease follows several times the same beaten track the details are hard to find. He does not know much about his hay fever. If you suggest several things he has them all. In nearly all these acute expressions you do not find in the exaggerated attack the symptoms that will lead you to the remedy.
You will find these symptoms by getting the state of the patient before he was taken with bay fever. These primitive symptoms are of more importance. Sometimes it is important to know what region was affected before the nose was affected. At times you will find spinal symptoms; great soreness in the back relieved by lying on something hard. Few remedies have that. They do not tell you that at first but continue to dwell on the bay fever. In many nervous women the attack comes on with sneezing and watery discharge and then a copious, thick, yellowish-green discharge. These are the natural symptoms of hay fever, but in the “back” symptoms you see something.
In Pulsatilla the menstrual symptoms and the prolapsus come in. When the hay fever comes on, all the other symptoms are better, she feels nothing except the hay fever, however, all the symptoms interweave with each other.
The Natrum mur. symptoms will be worse in the morning and until toward noon, while in Pulsatilla they are worse in the evening, the nose filling up with thick, yellowish-green, ropy mucus, and when the nose has been cleared, a dry, burning, smarting feeling remains; if the room is warm at night, she cannot sleep.
Natrum mur. is a little like that in the smarting and inability to sleep at night in a warm room. In Natrum mur. too, the discharge may continue day and night. We have an acute class in which Pulsatilla is sometimes indicated-copious watery discharge which ends in sneezing. In the beginning we will think of Carbo veg., Arsenic, Allium cepa, Euphrasia.
With Carbo veg. there is a watery discharge and the irritation extends into the chest, with hoarseness and rawness. In Allium cepa we have one group of symptoms that points to this remedy. Excoriating discharge from the nose and bland discharge from the eyes; in the larynx, sensation as if hooks were there, and sometimes this extends below the larynx; this always means Allium cepa; it is also worse in a warm room like Puls.
The Euphrasia looks like Cepa, only the discharge from the eyes is copious, watery and burning the lachrymation burns the eyes and excoriates the cheeks; discharge from nose is bland like Pulsatilla; sometimes this goes into the chest, then it is no longer Euphrasia.
Iodine is worse in a warm room; thick discharge from nose which bums and excoriates and is yellowish-green; but there is one thing that differentiates it from all the others -the patient immediately begins to emaciate when the complaint comes on and is very hungry.
Kali hydr. with the thick yellowish discharge, worse in a warm room, there is a great amount of rawness and burning in the nose; external nose very sore to pressure; sensitiveness in the root of the nose; whole face aches and patient is extremely restless; wants to walk in the open air which does not fatigue him.
Iodide of Arsenic; anxiety, restlessness and weakness; frequent sneezing and copious watery nasal discharge that burns the lip. Burning, watery discharge from the eyes like Arsenic. Arsenic wants to be very warm; wants hot water applied to the eyes; the only relief is from sniffing hot water up the nose. The Iodide of Arsenic is worse in a warm room, and, for days after sneezing, the discharge thickens and becomes gluey, looking like thick yellow honey, this excoriates; much pain through the root of the nose and eyes; often rawness in the chest with dyspnoea.
The remedies having the dyspnoea are Arsenic, Iodide of Arsenic, Iodine, Kali hydr., and Sabadilla; these are the ones I have found most frequently indicated in the asthmatic forms of hay fever. If the complaint has been developed after being overheated about that time, you will find that Silica, Puls. and Carbo veg. must be carefully compared.
There is another class of remedies having the stuffing up of the nose not relieved by the discharge. There is a constant duke to blow the nose, yet he gets no relief. This makes me think at once of Lach., Kali bi., Psor., Naja and Sticta.
Psorinum has the copious, watery, bland discharge from the nose, it may be excoriating, it has both. The stuffing up of the nose generally takes place in the open air; he is relieved in a warm, close room, and by lying down; has some dyspnoea. which is relieved by stretching the arms at right angles with the body. Hay fever is a psoric sickness. Psorinum given in a single dose will so develop the symptoms that the case will be more clear. The attack is not the best thing to prescribe for. If it is too violent, a short acting remedy may be selected that will mitigate it.
Nux vomica has a free easy breathing in the open air, but when he goes into the warm room his nose stuffs up, which also occurs at night, though the water drips on the pillow yet he stuffs up like Puls., Bry., and the Iodine preparations Iodide of Arsenic and Cyclamen. Do not understand me to have given remedies for hay fever, we cannot lay down remedies for diseases. The whole constitution must be most carefully examined.
Face: The face is sickly, often mottled, purple, intermixed with yellow and unhealthy colors; venous puffing; sensation of fullness; often a red face, like that of health, and the patient gets no sympathy; face often flushes; flushes of heat to the face; at times a sunken look; dark rings about the eyes; sallow, green, chlorotic.
Subject to erysipelas; erysipelatous blotches on the face, spreading to the scalp, with stinging and burning; skin of face very sensitive to touch at such times.
Mumps and inflammation of parotid glands. If a woman suffering with mumps takes a decided cold the breasts swell, and there is an inflammation of the mammary gland. Girls take cold, the swelling of the parotid subsides too soon, and the corresponding mammary gland swells; sometimes both swell; or it may begin in one and go to the other.
In men it is the testicle. Pulsatilla is one of the most important remedies in this form of metastasis; it breaks up complaints that flit about. Pulsatilla is the common remedy for enormously swollen testicles from mumps in a boy. Carbo vegetabilis is another remedy, but then you have a Carbo veg. patient. Abrotanum is also useful in wandering around symptoms.
Pains: Pulsatilla has wandering pains, rheumatism goes from joint to joint, jumps around here and there; neuralgic pains fly from place to place; inflammations go from gland to gland.
But here is the distinguishing feature – Pulsatilla sticks to its own text; it keeps jumping around, but it does not change to a new class of disease. Abrotanum has this metastasis, but it changes the whole diagnosis; that is, the allopath says,
“This is a new disease today.”
The patient has a violent diarrhoea today, and an ignoramus suppresses it; an inflammatory rheumatism comes on, and he calls it a new disease. The suppression of a diarrhoea or a hemorrhage, or the removal of piles, causes an out-cropping somewhere else. A child has a summer complaint suppressed and there follow symptoms referring to the brain, kidneys, liver, or a marasmus with emaciation from. below upwards. Such things are in the nature of Abrotanum.
Stomach: Hours after eating the patient eructates mouthfuls of sour, rancid, bitter fluid; liquids roll up from the stomach; always belching up rancid food.
Some patients cannot digest butter; cannot use olive oil on their food. All sorts of bad tastes in the mouth. Several hours after eating has not finished digesting food in the stomach. Sour vomiting and eructations.
Digestion is slow, and the patient goes to the next meal hungry; eating does not satisfy; assimilation is bad. Always bilious. Mouth is slimy and the taste is bad. All these symptoms are worse in the morning.
“Accumulation of saliva and much mucus in the mouth.”
“Flow of sweetish or tenacious saliva.”
“Constant spitting of frothy, cotton-like mucus.”
A striking feature of the Pulsatilla patient is that he never wants water. Dryness of the mouth, but seldom thirsty. Even in -many of the fevers he is thirstless, but there is at times an exception to this in high fevers there may be some thirst.
“Thirstlessness, with moist or dry tongue.
Desire for sour, refreshing things.”
Often desires things he cannot digest; lemonade, herring, cheese, pungent things, highly-seasoned things, juicy things.
“Aversion to meat, butter, fat food, pork, bread, milk, smoking.”
“Scraping sensation in stomach and oesophagus like heartburn.”
Many pains in the stomach when empty or when full. But the bloating, the gas and the sour stomach are most striking. Gastric catarrh. Craves ice cream; craves pastries, yet they will not digest, and make him worse. Craves things which make him sick. This is not uncommon. The whisky drinker craves his liquor, yet knows it will kill him. So in Pulsatilla with regard to pastries. Craves batter cakes, with maple syrup, yet knows they will be vomited. Craves highly spiced sausage, yet averse to pork alone.
Pulsatilla produces and cures jaundice.
“Jaundice in consequence of chronic susceptibility to hepatitis and derangement of secretion of bile, with looseness of bowels duodenal catarrh; disordered digestion feverishness and thirstlessness after quinine.”
Abdomen: Many troubles seem to manifest themselves in the abdomen by bloating, distension of the abdomen, flatulence, colicky pains, rumbling, fermentation of food, and from disorders of menstruation or diarrhea.
Great sensitiveness, tumefaction, tenderness; whole abdomen, stomach and pelvic organs sensitive to touch. Bloating after eating, especially after fats and rich foods. Fullness of the veins; general venous stasis. It brings about especially a tumid fullness of the abdomen, such a stuffed feeling that she cannot breathe.
Women: In a woman about to menstruate, there is bloating of the abdomen, stuffed feeling, has to throw off her clothes, cannot wear stays, wants to get into a loose dress or, to go to bed – so extremely puffed is she.
Associated with this abdominal tumefaction the face and lips become bloated and puffed, the eyes red, and the feet puffed so that she cannot wear her shoes. There is also a sensation of dragging down, a sense of great weakness, commonly related to the menstrual disturbances or uterine disorders.
The dragging down is recognized as prolapsus uteri. It is felt in the whole abdomen and is described as a funneling sensation, as if the parts would push out into the world, a dragging down. Oversensitiveness (of the abdomen; especially in the lower part of the abdomen. She cannot stand on her feet or walk around much, because of the weight and dragging down.
Labor-like pains in the uterus and back as if the menses would come on. It is not uncommon for the Pulsatilla patient to feel through the whole month as if she were about to menstruate.
The abdominal and bowel symptoms are associated.
Cutting, flitting changing pains. Pains urging to stool. Griping, in the bowels associated with dysentery or diarrhoea; loose watery or green stools. A striking feature of the bowel symptoms is a loose, watery, green stool, continually changing; yellow, faecal, slimy.
In summer complaints, when Pulsatilla is the indicated remedy, there will be hardly two stools alike; continually changing. This is characteristic of Pulsatilla in general; the pains wander; complaints change by metastases; the patient is scarcely ever twice alike. Diarrhea alternating with constipation. Menstrual flow stops and starts, intermits and changes. In the Pulsatilla patient you never know what you will find next.
Dysentery; dysenteric stools; scanty, slimy, bloody, green, watery stool with a little spurt; next stool might be diarrheic, with quite a copious discharge; thus you have diarrhoea and dysentery together.
Troublesome chronic constipation; stool large, hard and difficult to expel. It has (like Nux) frequent urging to stool without any, stool, or frequent urging with only a scanty stool; goes many times before can pass a stool, Nux and Pulsatilla.
Frequent unsuccessful urging in a chronic case is looked on as a keynote to Nux, but many remedies have it. Pulsatilla is one. The diarrhoea and bowel symptoms of Pulsatilla are worse, in the evening and during the night; that is, the stools are worse at night. The stomach, throat and mouth symptoms are worse in the morning. The mental symptoms are worse in the evening. The bowel and stool symptoms are aggravated by keeping perfectly still, and ameliorated by gentle motion.
There is much restlessness in Pulsatilla. Amelioration from motion in the cool open air. Feels stuffed up in a close room, and wants the windows open.
“Dysenteric stools of clear yellow, red or green slime; pain in the back, straining.”
“Stools of deep green mucus; pain in the abdomen; no thirst.”
You will remember the word green in Pulsatilla, as it relates extensively to the catarrhal discharges.
Most troublesome constipation with hemorrhoids; violent pains in the hemorrhoids, worse lying down, ameliorated from gentle motion, worse from the warmth of the bed, better moving about in the open air.
She becomes so nervous in a room while at rest that the pains seem intensified and she must move about.
Hemorrhoids:
“Hemorrhoids; painful protruding, blind, with itching and stitches in anus.”
The aggravation from lying down in extremely painful hemorrhoids is contrasted with Ammonium carb. which has violently painful hemorrhoids relieved by lying flat on the back. In violently painful hemorrhoids, with intense burning, think of Arsenicum and Kali Carbonicum.
In those with sticking, tearing pains study Aesculus.
Looking over a number of years I have been forced to use in this cases a remedy not yet fully proven. In painful hemorrhoids, in a broken down constitution where the whole disease seems to culminate in the hemorrhoids; bleeding, protruding; a mere touch almost causes a convulsion; it causes her to scream out at the top of her voice; it is so painful that she feels that death would be a relief; she lies in bed, holding the nates far apart with her hands; after every stool she has three or four hours of extreme suffering. In these case look up the Paeony.
The hemorrhoids it cures look like the flowers of the plant, they are so inflamed, so red and bleeding; oozing; tender to touch; patient is so worn out with the pain. It has many times relieved the pain and cured these enormous hoemorrhoidal tumors. I have cured them after they. Had been operated on, and all sorts of violence done them, without relief. Do not go to this drug if you can find a remedy that covers all the patient. Many patients will not confess any other symptoms, and some of these will suffer so much from the hemorrhoids alone that you will really need this remedy.
Urine: frequent, scanty, with urging; wonderful tenesmus; extremely painful, bloody, burning, smarting urine; there is scarcely a drop collects in the bladder but it must be expelled.
She cannot lie on the back without having a desire to urinate. She may go all night without urinating if she does not lie on the back, but the minute she turns on her back she is wakened by the desire to urinate and she feels that if she does not hurry she will pass it involuntarily.
Involuntary urination when coughing and sneezing, or from a sudden shock or surprise, or from sudden joy, or from laughing, or from the noise of the slam of a door or a pistol shot. Pulsatilla has dribbling of urine, dribbles on the slightest provocation.
She must keep her mind. Continually on it, or she will lose her urine. As soon as she goes to sleep it flows away. Little, mild, gentle, florid, plethoric, warm-blooded girls, who kick the covers off at night and have nocturnal enuresis.
Yellow, sallow, sickly girls who lose their urine in their first sleep call for Sepia. Losing the urine in the first sleep is looked upon as a strong symptom, but you can figure it out, and hence it is not so. All those cases that have to make an effort to hold the urine during the day lose in their first sleep; for then the mind is taken off it, and as soon as the mind is taken off it the urine dribbles.
Causticum and Sepia are remedies looked upon as curing involuntary urination during the first sleep, but I have cured it with many other remedies.
A man past middle age flooded the bed at night as soon as he went to sleep. The medicines which have this are limited and be had received them all. I found I must figure it out on another basis. I ascertained that when moving about at his work he had no difficulty in holding the urine but when he sat down he had to make an effort to control it. At the time this condition developed he had been in Atlantic City and had bathed much in the ocean. Here were the aggravation and amelioration of Rhus, and Rhus cured him. Few would think of Bryonia in urinary trouble.
When he moves the urine dribbles, when he walks it flows. He is relieved only by keeping quiet. Bryonia is aggravated by motion; Rhus is relieved by motion.
Pulsatilla has relief from motion. A few remedies have relief from slow motion and of these Pulsatilla and Ferrum are the most striking. A few remedies are relieved by hurried motion; want to move fast. Such are Bromine and Arsenicum. The Arsenic child cannot be carried fast enough. The Pulsatilla baby is content with moderate motion. Any motion that heats up the Pulsatilla patient aggravates all the complaints. A wood sawyer working hard said his cough was relieved by moving about but when he became heated up from sawing he had to sit down and rest on account of the violent spasmodic cough that would come on.
Pulsatilla has complaints from exposure to rain; getting feet wet. Urinary troubles, worse when getting chilled (Dulcamara). Pulsatilla establishes a chronic, inveterate catarrh of the bladder. Copious mucous discharge, bloody discharge, especially after taking cold. Thick, ropy, purulent, green, offensive discharge.
Men: Sexual desire unusually strong.
“Long lasting morning erection.”
“Sexual excesses resulting in headache, backache; limbs heavy.”
“Burning and aching of the testicles, with or without swelling.”
Orchitis; inflammation and swelling of the testicles from suppressed gonorrhea, from mumps, from catching cold, from, sitting on damp ground, or on a cold stone when perspiring. Gonorrhea suppressed by injections.
“Cold” settles in the testicles. Pulsatilla is the most frequently indicated remedy in gonorrhoea. in which the discharge is thick yellow or thick yellow and green, in those who are sensitive to heat, ameliorated walking in the open air. But also in persons with no other symptoms, and the gonorrheal discharge is thick yellow or green; no symptoms contra-indicating it.
Troublesome lingering discharges; an old gleet rouses into a thick yellow discharge, when be takes cold or after coition. Frequent tenesmus; chordee; urging to urinate; burning urination and yellow discharge.
Tumefaction about the penis. Foreskin dropsical. (Nitric ac., Fluor. ac., Cann. sat.). Pulsatilla is useful in cases of suppressed gonorrhea, with complaints following. Inflammation of the prostate. In old sinners with enlarged prostate, hard, flat, packed faeces, must always use a catheter; especially when the trouble has been brought on by sexual abuses, sexual excesses, vices. Pain in the testicles; tearing in the swollen testicles. Pain along the cord like cutting of knives; lacerating, tearing.
Women: Exaggerated sexual desire; nymphomania; wild, beside herself with sexual thoughts; uncontrollable sexual desire. Inflammation of ovaries and uterus. Suppression of menses from getting feet wet. Menses too late, scanty.
Face pale, yellow, sallow, or green like a chlorotic patient. It overcomes the tendency to miscarriage, false conception, moles, etc., and stops the growth of fibroids, other symptoms agreeing. In pregnancy and during confinement many symptoms call for Pulsatilla.
Most often called for when the patient is not irritable and the pains are very feeble, lasting for several days, and doing nothing; irregular, flitting, changeable pains, now up the back, now down the limbs; a prolonged first stage or prolonged preparatory symptoms. Chamomilla is more suitable if the woman is extremely irritable. But in a mild, gentle, mental state, when the pains are irregular, the os dilated and the contractions have let up, the pains too short, Pulsatilla will terminate that labor in a short time. The next pain after the dose will be a good one. You very often see in these cases that the outside parts are relaxed and the conditions are such that everything ought to go on well, but there is inaction. For weak pains Pulsatilla stands high.
Violent menstrual colic, causing her to bend double; soreness in the region of the uterus and ovaries; distended abdomen; throws the covers off; wants the windows open; tearful; weeps without a cause. Suppression of the menstrual flow from getting feet wet. Flow slow in being established and then scarcely more than a leucorrhea.
Menstruation that has been painful since puberty in plethoric girls. I have seen Pulsatilla cure a great many girls of sixteen to eighteen years old. The mother comes to me saying her daughter has suffered since her first menses; she went in swimming, or got her feet wet, and has suffered since. The doctor says the parts ‘are undeveloped and she must be operated on.
Pulsatilla has established a normal flow in a few months. Now I will give you a contrast in another remedy. Scrawny girls who are sensitive to cold, have also taken a bath at the time the first menses should appear, or have got the feet wet, and the flow is partially suppressed, or has come on with an inflammation; a state of undevelopment is established, a stenosis; horrible menstrual colic; bearing down pains, as if everything would escape into the world, doubling the patient up; ameliorated by heat and aggravated by cold. Calc. phos. is the remedy.
“In girls of mild disposition, when puberty is unduly delayed, or menstrual function is defectively or irregularly performed; they are pale and languid, complain of headache, chilliness and lassitude.”
To develop these young girls Pulsatilla is a great remedy. Most troublesome cases of prolapsus. It competes with Sepia, Belladonna, Natrum mur., Nux vomica and Secale; all of these are remedies with great relaxation, bearing down; some have cured even procidentia.
Pulsatilla cures many cases of gonorrhoea in females. I think it is most commonly indicated. A striking feature is, when the menstrual flow is present there is milk in the breasts.
In girls at puberty – milk in the breasts; a premature establishment of milk. In non-pregnant women, milk in the breasts. (Cyclamen and Mercurius.)
Chest: The chest, respiratory organs, and cough furnish some most troublesome symptoms.
Bronchitis; pneumonia. Dry, teasing cough and dyspnoea; wants the windows open, aggravated lying down. Cough gagging and choking. Copious expectoration in the morning, of thick yellow-green mucus. Dry, teasing cough at night, worse lying down, Chronic loose cough after measles. Whooping cough.
In the larynx we have many symptoms; constriction; tickling causing cough. Dry, teasing cough, worse lying and in a warm room. Cough worse at night. Bronchitis with loose morning and dry, evening cough.
Dyspnoea; oppression from walking fast or becoming overheated after eating; stopping up nose; after emotions. Spasmodic contraction of larynx. Tightness of chest; dyspnoea when lying on left edge; suffocation in the evening and during the night.
Asthma of children from suppressed rash or in women from suppressed menses. Loud rattling in the chest when lying. Chronic loose cough after measles. Expectoration of copious, thick, yellow-green, or bloody mucus; salty; offensive. Chronic catarrh of chest. Sensation of fullness in the chest in the evening with pulsation preventing sleep.
Palpitation from lying on the left side. Soreness in the walls of the chest. Pain in the chest sometimes relieved by lying on the opposite side; dryness and rawness in the chest. Wandering tearing pains in the chest; cutting pains in pleurisy; violent beat in the chest.
Haemorrhage of the lungs, dark blood. Dry cough in the evening, loose in the morning. Hemorrhage with suppressed menses or instead of the menses. Pulsatilla is very useful in catarrhal phthisis in chlorotic girls.
Back: In curvature of the spine Puls. is of great value.
Pain in the back, lumbar and sacral regions; wandering pains; spinal irritation after sexual excesses. Rheumatic pains in the spine and limbs, worse during rest and better from slow motion. Pain in small of back as if sprained; sensation of cold water poured down back.
All the limbs are painful; drawing, tearing pains in the limbs, better from motion and after motion; worse from a warm room and better from cold applications. Swelling of the veins in the arms and hands. Varicose veins of the limbs like Fl. ac. Rheumatism of joints; pain in joints as if dislocated. Sciatica worse in the evening and better from slowly moving about. Drawing and tension of muscles in lower limbs in the evening in bed. Tearing, jerking pains in the limbs, changing place. Burning in the veins. Purple swelling with violent itching of the feet as if they had been frozen. Feet burn, and he must put them out of bed. Soles bum and are bruised when walking.
Marked restlessness and twitching of the limbs and feet; numbness of the limb, lain on; wandering pains in all the limbs.
Sleeps on the back with hands over head. Cannot sleep on the left side as it increases the palpitation and suffocation. Confused, frightful, anxious dreams. Late falling asleep; sleeplessness on account of flushes of heat.
Pulsatilla cures intermittent fever, coming on from; disordered stomach. Chill morning and evening daily. The chill begins in the bands and feet; pains in the limbs during the chill; one sided coldness with numb feeling; fever one sided.
Thirst before the chill and seldom during the heat; heat with distended veins; sweat profuse all over or only on one side of the body. Vomiting of mucus during the chill.
Editorial notes
- “has sonic dyspnoea” corrected to “has some dyspnoea” (transcription error in the digital source text).
