Graphites – Black Lead

The attenuations are prepared from Graphite (pencil-lead), a naturally modified form of carbon.

In its action, Graphites has a certain relationship to Carbo Vegetabilis, but also to other anti-psorics, particularly Sulphur. According to Dahlke, there is throughout the whole remedy a characteristic tendency towards the formation of cracks, and to skin diseases of various kinds, proceeding with crusty eruptions and the discharge of a sticky, honey-like fluid, which hardens into scabs.

Skin diseases which call for Graphites are mainly localised in the folds and creases of the skin. Itching is aggravated by heat and the warmth of the bed. They are accom- panied by a pasty appearance, constipation and a despondent mood, with restlessness, anxiety and mental weakness. Thus the Graphites type has become summed up in the catchphrase: “Fat – stupid – constipated.” However, this is not completely apt, insofar as other symptoms, which do not fit into this pattern, are very susceptible to Graphites. These include general loss of hair, which is hard and brittle, and alopecia areata. Various kinds of tinnitus are also indications for Graphites, possibly associated with chronic ear discharge smelling like herring-brine. Graphites eruptions are situat- ed mostly in skin-folds and creases, or on that side of the limb, and at orifices, also be- hind the ears, at the nostrils, which are cracked, raw and encrusted, possibly associat- ed with an offensive discharge (ozaena), the nose itself being dry.

Graphites is also effective in colicky, burning stomach-pains, ameliorated by eat- ing and associated with distension; there may also be a pre-cancerous state in the py- loric area.

There are also itching eruptions around the anus, and possibly haemorrhoids which protrude, and are too painful to permit sitting down.

In women there is an aversion to coitus, a cold sensation in the vagina, and acrid, white leucorrhoea, gushing out. The finger and toe nails are thickened and split. Of- fensive foot-sweats are also susceptible to Graphites. The patient is generally easily chilled and sensitive to the cold. Graphites patients also tend towards swelling and induration of the glands.

Nash quotes a case of eczema on the legs, in which Sulphur was first given, whereupon an eruption broke out all over the body, with the discharge of a sticky, viscous fluid. By following with Graphites this eruption was then cured. Graphites is also the remedy in eczema capitis or when, after eczema has been suppressed, brown, liquid stools with undigested material and an intolerably foetid odour start to be passed. Eczema of the eyelids, eyelids with their edges covered in scales and scurf: these are cured by Graphites, whereas Sulphur is the cure where the orifices of the body are more reddened. Nash emphasizes that the lumpy, copious stools which are characteristic of Graphites may sometimes be joined by threads of mucus, and that Graphites is good not only for anal fissures, but for fissures in general, on fin- ger-tips, nipples, corners of the mouth, between the toes etc. Atheroma is also sus- ceptible to Graphites.

As clinical indications for Graphites, Dahlke also mentions scrofulous eye-condi- tions, styes, scanty menstruation with vicarious bleeding and bearing-down of the uterus, chronic gout with deformed fingers, anaemia, hydrocoele, atheroma, and re- current erysipelas, with the affected parts remaining hard and swollen.

Graphites also softens and reasorbs scar-tissue, and is therefore indicated in ulcers of the lower leg with hard edges and thin, acrid and offensive discharges, and in pso- riasis; but also in hoarseness and laryngeal complaints of professional speakers.

Summing up the main symptoms of Graphites, we have the following picture:

1. Mental dullness, difficult thinking. Despondent mood. Anxiety.
2. Skin dieseases with tendency to eczema in folds of the skin and orifices of the body, and on the articulating surfaces of the limbs, possibly associated with crusty, dry eruptions and offensive, acrid secretions of a sticky, honey-like con- sistency. Itching aggravated in the heat and by the warmth of the bed. Fissures in all orifices. Intertrigo. Styes and Meibomian cysts.
3. Offensive sweat. Chronic nasal catarrh with foetid, purulent and crusty discharge (ozaena).
4. Tinnitus. Otosclerosis. Deterioration of the hearing. Discharge from the ears, smelling like herring-brine.
5. Falling out of hair. Alopecia areata. Fungal infections of the nails.
6. Seborrhoeic blepharitis.
7. Leucorrhoea. Aversion to coitus. Scanty menstruation.
8. Colicky stomach-pains with distension. Pre-cancerous state. Constipation.
9. Chronically recurring erysipelas. Chronic rheumatic polyarthritis with deformity of joints.
10. Ulcer of the lower leg with hard edges. Keloid formation. Psoriasis.

The German Monograph-Preparation Commission for the Homoeopathic Field of Therapy has, under the Preparation Monograph for Graphites, published the fol- lowing indication(s) in the German Bundesanzeiger (German Federal Gazette) for graphites: paramenia; digestive insufficiency; geriatrically related disorders; eczema and other dermal diseases; mucosal inflammation.