Bufo Rana. bufo.

Key-Notes to the Materia Medica

Henry N. Guernsey · Key-Notes to the Materia Medica · homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML text (Guernsey d. 1885; public domain)

General

In panaritium, where the pain runs in streaks, all the way up the arms. Also when the fingers have been injured and look black, with pains running in streaks up the arm. In some cases of epilepsy.

Homœopathic Materia Medica

William Boericke · Homœopathic Materia Medica · 9th edition

Common name

Poison of the Toad (BUFO)

General

Acts on the nervous system and skin. Uterine symptoms marked. Lymphangitis of septic origin. Symptoms of paralysis agitans. Striking rheumatic symptoms.

Arouses the lowest passions. Causes a desire for intoxicating drink, and produces impotence.

Of use in feeble-minded children. Prematurely senile. Epileptic symptoms. Convulsive seizures occur during sleep at night. More or less connected with derangements of the sexual sphere, seem to come within the range of this remedy. Injuries to fingers; pain runs in streaks up the arms.

Mind

Anxious about health. Sad, restless. Propensity to bite. Howling; impatient; nervous; imbecile. Desire for solitude. Feeble-minded.

Head

Sensation as if hot vapor rose to top of head. Numbness of brain. Face bathed in sweat. Epistaxis with flushed face and pain in forehead, better, nosebleed.

Eyes

Cannot bear sight or brilliant objects. Little blisters form on eye.

Ears

Music is unbearable (Ambra). Every little noise distresses.

Heart

Feels too large. Palpitation. Constriction about heart. Sensation of heart swimming in water.

Female

Menses too early and copious, clots and bloody discharge at other times; watery leucorrhœa. Excitement, with epileptic attacks. Epilepsy at time of menses. Induration in mammary glands. Palliative in cancer of the mammæ. Burning in ovaries and uterus. Ulceration of cervix. Offensive bloody discharge. Pains run into legs. Bloody milk. Milk-leg. Veins swollen. Tumors and polypi of womb.

Male

Involuntary emissions; impotence, discharge too quick, spasms during coition. Buboes. Disposition to handle organs (Hyos; Zinc). Effects of onanism.

Extremities

Pains in loins, numbness of limbs, cramps, staggering gait, feeling as if a peg were driven in joints; swelling of bones.

Skin

Panaritium; pain runs up arm. Patches of skin lose sensation. Pustules, suppuration from every slight injury. Pemphigus. Bullæ which open and leave a raw surface, exuding and ichorous fluid. Blisters on palms and soles. Itching and burning. Carbuncle.

Relationship

Compare: Baryt carb; Asterias; Salamand (Epilepsy and softening of brain).

Antidotes: Laches; Seneg.

Complementary: Salamandra.

Modalities

Worse, in warm room, on awakening. Better, from bathing or cold air; from putting feet in hot water.

Dose

Sixth potency and higher.

Text Book of Materia Medica

Adolph Lippe · Text Book of Materia Medica · homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML text (Lippe d. 1888; public domain)

Mind and Disposition

Inclination to he angry -to bite.

Head

Giddiness, with heaviness of the head. Headache in the forehead and on the vertex ; the parts are tender to the touch, especially in the evening. One-sided headache (right side) relieved by bleeding of the nose. Headache, after breakfast. Headache, aggravated by light and noise ; accompanied by cold feet and palpitation of the heart. Profuse perspiration on the head.

Eyes

Eyes red, injected -itching, swollen. Appearance of objects as if there were a veil before the eyes.

Nose

Sneezing in the evening when going to bed. Bleeding of the nose relieving the headache.

Face

Pimples on the upper lip, with coryza. Momentary hot flushes of the face. Erysipelas.

Mouth and Tongue

Stuttering. Black tongue. Fetid odor from the mouth.

Throat

Mucus descends from the nose into the posterior nares. Dryness in the throat, impeding deglutition (morning).

Appetite and Taste

Desire for sugar-water. Sensation, as if he would faint from emptiness in stomach.

Stomach and Abdomen

Eructations, as from rotten eggs. Vomiting, after drinking. After eating, irresistible sleepiness. Colic pain after drinking milk, and after smoking tobacco.

Stool and Anus

Stools white. Constipation, with coldness of the body and hot head. Hæmorrhoidal tumors, with discharge of bright-red blood.

Urinary Organs

Frequent discharge of pale urine. Urine brown ; of offensive odor. Burning pain in the kidneys, with oppressed breathing and faintiness.

Sexual Organs

Men. Inclination to touch the genitals. Women. Menstruation too early -with headache.

Larynx and Chest

Cough, from stitches in the larynx. Sensation, as if the chest and the heart were constricted. Stitches in the chest (right side). Palpitation of the heart, after a meal, with nausea.

Extremities

Upper. The arms go to sleep easily. Large blisters in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Panaritium, swelling blue-black around the nail (thumb), followed by suppuration. After a slight contusion of the (little) finger, tearing pain, with redness along the whole arm, following the lymphatic vessels into the arm-pit ; causing there painful glandular swellings. Lower. Cramps in the legs, awaking him from his sleep. Great weakness of the legs.

Generalities

Great weakness -fainting. Swelling of the whole body. Twitching of the muscles. Convulsions. Epilepsy (after fright).

Sleep

Sleepiness, after meals. Inclined to lie on the left side. Sleepiness when he smokes tobacco in the forenoon.

Fever

Heat, with apathy or delirium, and cold feet.

Skin

Yellow color of the skin. Small wounds suppurate much. Carbuncles. Ulcers, with burning pains.

Conditions

Aggravation, morning or evening. The warm room is unpleasant.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica

John Henry Clarke · A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · 1st edition (1900-02, three volumes); homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML digitization

General

The Toad. (Including the common variety, Bufo rana, and the Brazilian toad, Bufo Sahytiensis, proved by Mure.) N. O. Bufonidæ, Batrachidæ. Solution in rectified spirit of the poison expressed from the cutaneous glands.

Clinical

Brain, softening of. Buboes. Cancer. Carbuncles. Caries. Chorea. Dropsy. Epilepsy . Heart, affections of. Impotence. Intermittents. Malignant pustule. Meningitis. Panaritium. Pemphigus. Phlegmasia alba dolens. Plague. Podagra. Self-abuse. Skin, affections of. Stammering. Suppuration. Whitlow.

Characteristics

In spite of modern scepticism regarding the poisonous properties of the toad, Shakspere, who seems to have known everything, was absolutely correct in speaking of the toad as having "sweltered venom." The poison is excreted by glands in the skin of the back. L. Guthrie ( H. W ., xxviii. 484) tells a story of an Italian peasant, apparently dying of dropsy, whose wife, weary of the interminable length of his illness, thought to hasten his end by putting a toad into his wine. The result was the man was completely cured. "Quintessence of toads" figured largely in the therapy of Salmon's Doron Medicon (1583), where it is commended as a "Specifick in the Dropsy." Homœopathic experiments and poisonings have shown that this reputation is founded on fact. But the chief laurels of Bufo have been won in the treatment of epilepsy. Bojanus has cured many cases; and no medicine has served me better in the treatment of this disease. Few people who have witnessed a characteristic epileptic seizure can have failed to notice the curiously toad-like aspect assumed by the subject. The epileptic seizure and the status-epilepticus give the clearest correspondence to the Bufo range of action. Again, epilepsy is often found among the effects of self-abuse in the young, and Bufo provokes the tendency to the practice, and even causes impotence. The Indian women of Brazil are aware of this last property, and administer the venom to their husbands in food or drink when they wish to free themselves from their marital attentions. Bufo causes low grades of inflammatory action, fetid exhalations and discharges. (I have removed the fetor in hopeless cases of cancer with this remedy.) Guernsey commends it in panaritium where the pain runs in streaks, all the way up the arm. Also when the fingers have been injured and look black, with pains running in streaks up the arm. E. E. Case has reported a cure with Bufo cinereus of "epistaxis daily for several weeks with flushed face, heat and pain in forehead > by the bleeding; there was also easy perspiration in general, apt to be offensive, especially on the feet." According to Lippe Bufo is especially indicated in epilepsy when the attacks occur during sleep at night. The patient may or may not be awakened by the attack; if not, when he does awaken he will have violent headache. Epileptic symptoms are < in warm room; but there is also great sensitiveness to cold air and wind. Marked periodicity: quartan fevers. Hæmorrhages.

Relations

Heloderma, Amphisbœna. Salamandra is complementary in epilepsy and brain-softening (Hering). Antidoted by: Lach., Seneg. Similar: Cubeb. In convulsions from low grades of suppuration, Arsen., Canth., Lach., and Tarent.; in epilepsy aura starting in solar plexus, Artem., Calc., Nux, Sil.; aura starting in arm, Lach., Sul.; in chorea, patient cannot walk, must run or jump, Kali bro., Nat. m.; as if heart in water, Bovist.; in masturbation, impotence, &c., Hyo., Merc., Sul.; in malignant pustule, Anthrax., Ant. c., Lach. in bullæ, panaritium, &c., Hep., Lach., Ph. ac., Sil., Diosc. Head drawn to either side, Camph.

Mind

Weak memory; idiotic. ─ Desire for solitude. ─ Inclination to be angry; to bite.

Head

Numbness of brain before attack. ─ Pressure like two iron hands holding temples. ─ Headache: after breakfast; one-sided (r.) > by nose-bleed; congestive; < by light and noise; with cold feet and palpitation. ─ Head at first drawn to one side (r. or l.), then backwards before an attack. ─ Sensation as if hot vapour rose to top of head.

Eyes

R. eye open, l. nearly closed; eyeballs rolled upward and to l. before attack. ─ L. lid paralysed.

Ears

Least noise disagreeable; music intolerable. ─ Purulent otorrhœa; ulceration and bleeding of external ears.

Face

Face bloated and distorted; mouth and eyes convulsed. ─ Hot flushes. ─ Face bathed in sweat (during spasms).

Mouth

Paralysis of tongue; lapping motion before attacks. ─ Stuttering and stammering; angry when not understood. ─ Bloody saliva; fetid breath. ─ Desire for sweet drinks.

Male Sexual Organs

Involuntary emissions; too quick ejaculation; impotence. ─ Masturbation.

Female Sexual Organs

Menses too early and too profuse; epileptic attacks with menses. ─ Headache with or before menses. ─ Cancer of breast. ─ Cord-like swelling from groin to knee (milk-leg).

17, 19. Respiratory Organs and Heart. ─ Burning like fire in lungs. ─ Heart feels as if too large; as if drowned in a basin of water. ─ Palpitation with headache; during menses. ─ Constriction about heart.

Neck and Back

Attacks ushered in by a jerk in nape of neck. ─ Swelling of bone size of fist (caries of dorsal vertebræ).

Limbs

Bruised pains; trembling; cramps; arthritic swellings. ─ Swelling of hands and arms; burning pains.

Upper Limbs

Great desire to exercise the arms. ─ Burning lancinating in bones. ─ Arms become stiffened before an attack. ─ Numbness of l. arm. ─ Arms go to sleep easily. ─ Blister in hand recurring annually. ─ After slight contusion inflammation of lymphatics. ─ Panaritium, swelling blue-black around nail; pain in streaks up arm. ─ Contraction of fingers of r. hand, then l., followed by lapping movement of tongue with thumbs drawn into pelvis; before an attack (epilepsy).

Lower Limbs

Sciatica. ─ Lower limbs more in motion than upper. ─ Cramp awakens him from sleep. ─ Lower limbs get weak (brain-softening). ─ Lower limbs straight and stiff before attack. ─ Swelling of knees with pulsative and distending pains. ─ Podagra.

Generalities

Epileptic attacks, ushered in by a cry; face livid followed by sleep; occur at midnight; at time of menses; at change of moon; result of sexual excitement. ─ Swelling of whole body which turns a deep yellow. ─ Lividity.

Skin

Dirty greenish oily. ─ Large yellow bullæ, which open, leaving a raw surface exuding an ichorous fluid. ─ Burning blisters. ─ Sweat profuse; oily. ─ Carbuncles. ─ Chilblains.

Sleep

Sleepy; after meals. ─ All symptoms < on awaking.

The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica

Constantine Hering · The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica · 1879–91

Mind

Desire for solitude, to practice masturbation.
Whimpered, then cried, until he fell into a state of coma.
Left his bed after apathy and ran like mad through the house, constantly howling ; eyes injected ; tongue dry ; pulse regular ; no febrile heat.
Stupor.
Weak memory ; idiotic. θ Spasms.
Delirium or apathy, with hot head.
Mind not affected. θ Epilepsy.
Longs for solitude, yet dreads being alone. See 22 .
Inclination to be angry, to bite.
Bites at surrounding objects.
Easily laughs or cries ; cries much. θ Epilepsy.
Fear of disease, of animals, of death.
Great anguish. θ Meningitis.
Ill humor. See 23 .
Becomes angry if misunderstood ; before spasms.
Easily startled.

Sensorium

Vertigo.
Vertigo, as if house was turned up side down.
Giddiness, with heaviness of head.
Vertigo, spasms, fainting followed by death.
Attacks were ushered in by numbness of brain. θ Epilepsy.
Stupor and inability to speak.
Apathy following coma.

Inner head

Pressure like two iron hands holding temples.
Headache : after breakfast ; aggravated by light and noise ; accompanied by cold feet and palpitation at heart ; one-sided (r. side), relieved by bleeding of nose.
Dull headache in left side. θ Softening of brain.
Headache, with epilepsy.
Violent orgasm in head.
Congestive headache, with flushed face. θ Epilepsy.

Outer head

Headache in forehead and on vertex ; parts tender to touch, especially in evening.
Lancinations in occiput, inclining head to fall backward. θ Meningitis.
Continued agitation of head and arms.
Head was at first drawn to one side, either right or left, then backward, before an attack. θ Epilepsy.
Profuse perspiration on head.
Hair falls out.

Sight and eyes

Cannot bear sight of brilliant objects.
Objects appear as if seen through a veil.
Amaurosis.
More acute vision, and eyes less sensitive to wind.
Itching in eyes, with dimness of sight.
Pupils largely dilated and unaffected by light before attack. θ Epilepsy.
Ugly squinting look.
Eyes red, injected ; itching, swollen, painful.
Spasmodic pain in eye, which appeared slightly injected.
Burning, itching and ulceration of lids, especially at canthi.
Eyes became highly injected ; shrunken and lifeless in appearance, as the attacks multiplied. θ Epilepsy.
Right eye open, left nearly closed ; eyeballs rolled upward and to left before attack. θ Epilepsy.
Left lid paralyzed, hangs down. θ Softening of brain.
Edges of eyelids red and some crusts in lashes. θ Epilepsy.
A whitish crust over eyebrows.
Eyes sunken during spasm. θ Epilepsy.
Incapable of opening lids, in coma.

Hearing and ears

Least noise is disagreeable ; music is unbearable.
Beating in heart reverberates in ears. θ Meningitis.
Hardness of hearing, especially for words.
Purulent otorrhœa ; ulceration and bleeding of external ears ; pains worse from cold washing. See 8 and 12 .
Swelling of ears and parotids.

Smell and nose

Loss of smell.
Epistaxis almost producing faintness ; relieves headache.
Sneezing in evening, when going to bed ; coryza ; pimples on upper lip.
Running of greenish-yellow, putrid mucus ; < evening ; cold air causes a feeling of corrosion.
Ulcerated, burning nostrils Mucus descends into posterior nares.

Upper face

Face much altered.
Distortion and turgescence of face ; mouth and eyes convulsed ; profuse sweat on face.
First muscles of face commenced to twitch, extending thence over whole body. θ Epilepsy.
Face greyish ; red, bloated during spasms.
Cold water causes a pricking of face. See 6 , 12 .
Momentary hot flushes of face.
Copious sweat running down face.
Burning and redness of swollen face.
Phlegmonous erysipelas, which leaves face deformed.
Erysipelas.
Face bathed in sweat during spasm. θ Epilepsy.

Lower face

Pimples on upper lip, with coryza.

Teeth and gums

Toothache.
Falling out of teeth.

Taste, speech, tongue

Difficult mobility of tongue, it paralyzes rapidly ; irritability of tongue and other muscles.
A kind of lapping motion of tongue, feeling of face and rubbing of nose before attacks. θ Epilepsy.
Stuttering ; stammering ; gets angry when incoherent speech is not understood. θ Chorea.
Stupor and inability to talk.
Bites the tongues.
Dry tongue.
Tongue cracked, bluish-black.
Lips and tongue black.

Inner mouth

Fetid odor from mouth.
Mouth wide open before an attack. θ Epilepsy.
Mouth burning, as from acid ; worse from cold water.
Sanguinolent salivation.
Bloody saliva. θ Spasms.
During violent agitation of muscular system, ejection of frothy, bloody saliva from mouth. θ Epilepsy.
Carried objects within his reach to his mouth to bite them.

Palate and throat

Mucus descends from nose into posterior nares.
Dryness in throat, impeding deglutition (morning).
Difficult swallowing, can hardly swallow saliva.
Convulsive and constrictive motion in throat, with a sensation like a stone there.
Fearful sore throat, could eat neither supper nor breakfast for it ; verified at another time in same person.
Eruption in pharynx, like spots on skin. θ Epilepsy.

Appetite, thirst. desires, aversions

Desire for sugar-water.
Desire for sweetened water and milk, yet they cause nausea and colic.
Longing for brandy ; delights in getting drunk.
Aversion to food and drink.

Eating and drinking

Dizzy, drunken feeling after dinner.
Sleepiness after meals, especially after dinner. See 4 .
After eating, irresistible sleepiness.
Colicky pain after drinking milk, and after smoking tobacco.

Hiccough, belching, nausea and vomiting

Hiccough.
Eructations, as from rotten eggs.
Nausea and vomiting after the swelling.
Nausea in morning for a week.
Vomiting after drinking.
Yellow fluid in vomit, like that from eruption. θ Epilepsy.
Vomiting of bile or of blood ; burning, cramping in stomach.
Nervous excitement, with nausea and vomiting.

Scrobiculum and stomach

Sensation as if he would faint, from emptiness in stomach.
Weak, faint feeling in stomach. See 36 .
Burning in stomach ; lancinating pains radiating to liver and heart.

Hypochondria

Rapid motion of diaphragm.
Pulsating, laming pain in liver, like an abscess ; vomiting of bile.
Enlargement of liver.

Abdomen and loins

Colicky pains after milk, or from smoking tobacco.
Violent colic, with convulsive movements of jaws and limbs.
Spasms end by convulsive movements in abdomen.
The attack originates in abdomen. θ Epilepsy.

Stools and rectum

Dysentery, with delirium, headache and sleeplessness.
Bowels torpid.
Stools white.
Difficult, hard stool, with cold body and hot head.
Ascarides.
Hemorrhoidal tumors, with discharge of bright red blood.

Urinary organs

Burning pain in kidneys, with oppressed breathing and faintness.
Urine passes off involuntarily. θ Softening of brain.
Frequent discharge of pale urine.
During violent agitation of entire muscular system, discharge of urine. θ Epilepsy.
Urine brown, of offensive odor.
Suppression of urine.

Male sexual organs

Inclination to touch genitals.
Desire for solitude to practice onanism.
Involuntary seminal emission.
Impotence ; semen is ejaculated too quickly, or fails entirely.
Semen in discharged too quickly, without pleasurable sensation, sometimes with cramps or painful heaviness in limbs.
Impotence of worst kind ; produced in some and cured in others.
Spasms during coition.
Buboes.

Female sexual organs

Burning and swelling of ovaries.
Burning heat and stitches in ovaries.
Swelling and great sensitiveness of ovarian region.
Violent cramps in ovarian region, extending into groins.
Hydatids in ovaries.
Epileptic aura from uterus towards stomach.
Distending, burning pains or cramps in uterus ; sharp, dagger-like pains ; worse on walking or sitting too long. θ Carcinoma uteri.
Ulceration of cervix uteri, with burning pains ; offensive, purulent leucorrhœa.
Enormous blisters on tumefied uterus, discharging a thin, serous, yellow fluid. θ Epilepsy.
Menstruation : suppressed (epilepsy) ; regular but rather scanty (epilepsy) ; too early, with headache ; too early, preceded by headache, burning in uterus and vagina.
Spasms occur just before menses. θ Epilepsy.
Attacks worse at time of menses, which return every three weeks. θ Epilepsy.
During menses, contractive pain in liver, palpitation ; shivering in legs.
After menses, ill-humored.
Yellow fluid in leucorrhœa, like from eruption. θ Epilepsy.

Pregnancy. parturition. lactation

Hæmaturia in childbed.
Inflammation of mamma ; purulent sinuses ; sensation as if breasts were torn towards belly.
(OBS :) Puerperal convulsions if suppuration is suspected.
Cancer mamma occultus.
Mammary cancer.
Milk mixed with blood.
Tumefaction like a cord from groin to knee. θ Milk leg.
Child became epileptic in consequence of mother having a fright or fit of anger during nursing period.

Voice and larynx. trachea and bronchia

Burning, excoriation in larynx ; bleeding fissures, causing quick, jerking cough.

Respiration

After convulsive movements became less rapid and violent, breathing became heavy and stertorous, with usual puffing of lips at every expiration, directly culminated in a deep-drawn sigh, and patient sank into coma, soon followed by the restlessness and
convulsions as before. θ Epilepsy.
Difficult breathing from compression of larynx, trachea and heaviness of chest ; must sit up or bend forward. See 21 .
Sensation as if chest and heart were constricted.
Breathing anxious, difficult, gets shorter and shorter, with fever.
Dyspnœa ; pants like a dog.

Cough

Cough from any emotion.
Cough from burning or stitches in larynx.
Cough nocturnal, provoked towards 3 or 4 A. M. by a tickling in larynx, which he feels only at this hour.
Cough in consequence of cold feet.
Violent cough, with vomiting.
Cough dry, with sharp pain or burning in chest.
Sputa mucous or sanguinolent, or formed of pure blood, raised most in morning and evening, with sensation of cold in chest ; a sensation which is often succeeded by heat and congestion.

Inner chest and lungs

Stitches in chest (r. side).
Burning like fire in lungs.
Laryngitis, hæmoptysis, phthisis pulmonalis.

Heart, pulse and circulation

Palpitation ; with headache ; after a meal ; with nausea ; during menses ; on awaking ; evening.
Palpitation and oppression from walking fast.
Sticking pains about apex of heart.
Heart feels as if too large, as if drowned in a basin of water.
Sense of constriction about heart and chest. See 3 .
Heaviness about heart.
Paralysis of heart.
Pulse became more and more rapid and threadlike as the paroxysms multiplied. θ Epilepsy.

Neck and back

Attacks ushered in by a jerk in nape of neck. θ Epilepsy.
A swelling of bone size of fist. θ Caries of dorsal vertebræ.

Upper limbs

Great desire to exercise arms. See 36 .
Burning, lancinating in bones of arms. See 44 .
Arms became stiffened before an attack. θ Epilepsy.
Arms go to sleep easily.
Numbness of left arm. θ Epilepsy.
Swelling of wrists and finger joints, with burning and pulsating.
A blister in hand which recurred annually.
After a slight contusion of (little) finger, tearing pain, with redness along whole arm, following lymphatic vessels into armpit, causing there painful glandular swellings.
Contractions of fingers of right hand, then left, followed the lapping motion of tongue, with thumbs drawn into palms ; before an attack. θ Epilepsy.
Panaritium, swelling blue black around nail (thumb), followed by suppuration.
Panaritium ; pains run in streaks all the way up arm.

Lower limbs

Ischias.
Lower limbs are more in motion than upper.
Cramps in legs, awaking him from his sleep.
Legs drawn backward until they touch glutei.
Lower limbs straight and stiff before attack. θ Epilepsy.
Lower limbs get weak, has to take first one stick, then two to be able to walk. θ Softening of brain.
Great weakness of legs.
Shooting, boring in knees, ankles, feet ; worse moving.
Swelling of knees, with pulsative and distending pains.
Podagra.

Limbs in general

Limbs are very easily moved.
Contusive pains in arms, legs and loins, during movement.
Trembling of limbs ; heaviness.
Cramps in limbs ; worse in cold air.
Arthritic swelling.
Swelling of hands and arms ; burning pains. θ Erysipelas.
Large yellow blisters in palms and soles, of three inches circumference ; the fluid oozing out is yellowish and corroding ; repeatedly on several places.

Rest. position. motion

Pain in limbs since months, he is bent and cannot walk without a stick. θ Caries of dorsal vertebræ.
Each attack heralded by restless movements of limbs and body. θ Epilepsy.
Sitting too long, uterine pains.
Must sit up : dyspnœa.
Inclined to lie on left side.
Lying on back increases sufferings.
Walking : distending, burning pain or cramps in uterus ; dagger-like pains < ; fast, palpitation and apprehension.
Sitting : distensive, burning pain ; cramps in uterus ; dagger-like pains < ; difficult breathing better.
Bending forward : difficult breathing better.
Motion : discharge of urine from violent agitation of muscular system ; desire to exercise arms ; lower limbs move more than upper ; shooting, burning in knees, ankles and feet < ; contusive pains in arms, legs and loins.

Nerves

Great muscular strength ; prefers jumping to walking.
Great mobility of limbs.
Repeated shocks through whole body.
Up to period of beginning, muscles were in a state of tonic contraction, but then jactitations or twitchings commenced. θ Epilepsy.
Twitching of muscles.
Twitching over whole body increased rapidly in severity, till entire muscular system became violently agitated. θ Epilepsy.
Tonic and clonic spasms.
Spasms begin in solar plexus.
Loss of consciousness and falling down.
Convulsions. θ Epilepsy (after fright).
Epilepsy after onanism. Compare Sulphur.
Spasms caused by or associated with suppuration of internal parts.
Convulsion of limbs. θ Softening of brain.
Spasms : from fright ; at new moon ; after onanism ; during coitus.
Before spasm : angry for several days ; face greyish-yellow, eyes sunken ; jerks in back of neck.
During attack : face distorted, red, biting tongue ; bloody saliva ; violent movements of limbs ; profuse sweat.
After attack : spasmodic movements of intestines ; profound sleep.
Subsultus tendinum.
Falls to ground unconscious, with a blood-curdling, wild cry, followed by spasms in limbs ; distorted facial muscles, grinding teeth and foaming mouth ; ending in loud, snoring sleep. θ Epilepsy.
Spasms very severe, followed by sleep. θ Epilepsy pain.
Attacks come on in sleep, are followed by severe pain and pressure in top of head. θ Epilepsy.
Dreadful paroxysm several times a week. θ Epilepsy.
Fifty paroxysms occurred during fifteen hours, with complete unconsciousness. θ Epilepsy.
Trembling, faint, with a sensation of emptiness in stomach ; tottering gait. See 33 .
Great weakness ; fainting.
Paralysis.

Sleep

Sleepiness : after meals ; when he smokes tobacco in forenoon.
Sleepy, stupid after eating, or after having been in open air.
Sleepy, as if drunken ; congestion to head.
Drowsy, but cannot sleep, from agitation ; constantly turning in bed.
After a deep-drawn sigh, patient sank away into a comatose condition, from which no effort could rouse him. θ Epilepsy.
Continued yawning, could not keep lips open.
Very profound coma subsequent to attacks. θ Epilepsy.
Child cries and complains, finally becomes comatose.
Stupid sleep after epileptic attack.
Starts in sleep, awakens as if frightened ; palpitation.
At midnight seized with convulsions, recurring every twenty minutes till 4 P. M. of next day.
On awaking, aggravation of all sufferings ; neck stiff ; arthritic pains.

Time

Midnight : convulsions, returning every twenty minutes, till 4 P. M.
Morning : dryness in throat ; nausea ; mucous or sanguinolent sputa < ; aggravation of all symptoms ; neck stiff ; arthritic pains ; sweat towards morning.
Evening : headache in forehead and vertex ; sneezing ; putrid greenish-yellow mucus from nose < ; mucous or sanguinolent sputa < ; palpitation with headache ; symptoms generally worse.
Attacks appear with change of moon. θ Epilepsy.

Temperature and weather

The warm room is unpleasant.
Headache and flushed face much < in warm room or near stove ; > from cold bathing or in cold air. θ Epilepsy.
Putting feet in hot water and drinking something hot, sometimes breaks up the attack. θ Epilepsy.
Great sensibility to open, cold air and wind. See 34 , 37 , 40 .
Open air : coldness ; moist skin ; nervousness and trembling worse.
Cold : air causes corrosion of nostrils ; water causes pricking of face ; water, burning of mouth < ; air, cramps in limbs.
Wind : eyes less sensitive to.

Fever

Coldness and shivering, with moist skin, nervousness and trembling ; < going into open air.
Heat, with apathy or delirium, and cold feet.
The limbs get cold, head and face increasingly hot, as paroxysms multiply. θ Epilepsy.
Burning heat in various parts.
Limbs burning hot during fever.
Hot head, cold body ; delirium or apathy ; constipation.
Profuse, oily sweat on head and face.
Bathed in sweat, weak ; spasms.
Sweat during sleep, towards morning.
The body, and especially hands and arms, bathed in a clammy perspiration, as attack multiplied. θ Epilepsy.
Checked sweat, now very copious, most towards morning. θ Softening of brain.
Cold sweat.
Quartana.
(OBS :) Plague.

Attacks, periodicity

Every week, on one day, four attacks. θ Epilepsy.
About once on week, always in night, followed by some hours of coma. θ Epileptic spasms.
Has from ten to twelve attacks yearly. θ Epilepsy.
Attacks since about five years. θ Epilepsy.

Locality and direction

Right : eye open ; stitches in chest.
Left : dull headache ; eye nearly closed ; lid paralyzed.

Sensations

Vertigo as if house was turned upside down ; heart as if too large, as if drowned in a basin of water ; as if breasts were torn towards belly.
If awake she has some warning, from a feeling of general numbness, immediately followed by a spasm. θ Epilepsy.
Lancinating : in occiput ; in stomach to liver and heart ; in bones of arms.
Stitching : in ovaries ; in larynx ; in chest, right side ; about apex of heart ; in skin.
Pricking : of face from cold water.
Shooting : in knees, ankles and feet.
Tearing : along arm.
Contusion : in arms, legs and loins during motion.
Pressure : like two iron bands holding temples ; in top of head.
Aching : of head after meal ; one-sided headache ; of head with epilepsy ; in forehead and vertex ; of teeth ; of head during menstruation.
Soreness : of throat.
Burning : of eyelids ; of nostrils ; of face ; of mouth ; in stomach ; in kidneys ; of ovaries ; pain in uterus ; in uterus and vagina ; during menstruation ; in larynx ; in chest ; like fire in lungs ; in bones of
arms ; of wrists and finger joints ; in knees, ankles and feet ; in hands and arm ; heat in various parts ; of skin.
Pain : of eyes ; spasmodic in eye ; colic after drinking milk or smoking ; dagger-like in uterus ; in streaks up arm ; arthritic pains on awakening.
Cramps : in ovarian region ; in uterus ; in legs.
Tenderness : of forehead and vertex ; of ovarian region ; of bones.
Twitching : of whole body.
Compression : of larynx, trachea.
Contraction : in liver ; of chest and heart.
Constriction : about heart and chest.
Distension : in uterus ; pain in knees.
Largeness of heart.
Emptiness : in stomach.
Heaviness : in limbs, from coition ; of chest ; about heart ; of limbs.
Stone : sensation of, in throat.
Pulsating : pain in liver, abscess-like ; of wrists and finger joints ; pain in knees, with swelling.
Beating : in ear.
Weakness : of legs ; great weakness and fainting.
Faintness : from epistaxis ; in stomach.
Heat : of head and face.
Shivering : in legs.
Coldness : of feet, with headache ; of feet, causing cough ; in chest ; of limbs, with moist skin.
Numbness : of brain ; of left arm.
Tickling : in larynx.
Itching : in eyes, with dimness of sight ; of eyelids ; of lower limbs.
Dryness : of tongue ; in throat.

Tissues

Bleeding
Redness and swelling along course of lymphatics, after wounds, etc. See 24 , 32 .
Subsultus tendinum and contraction of muscles.
Bones sensitive ; bones of legs brittle ; caries of spinal vertebræ ; pains in joints as if crushed ; arthritis ; tophi on knees and feet.
Scrofulosis ; fistula ; carbuncles.
Open cancer.
Swelling of whole body, which turns a deep yellow.
Swelling of body like hydrops, with great oppression.

Touch. passive motion. injuries

Small wounds suppurate much.
Tendency of wounds to suppurate, with throbbing and lancinating pains.
Lymphatics swell after a wound.
Depression of skull from a horse's kick on occiput. θ Epilepsy.
Convulsions after having teeth extracted. θ Epilepsy.
When suppurations seem to be the cause of convulsions. θ Epilepsy.
Touch : tenderness of forehead and vertex ; ovarian region sensitive.

Skin

Stitches in skin prevent sleep at night. θ Softening of brain.
Red or purplish streaks in neck, back or other parts. θ Meningitis.
Yellow color of skin.
Skin greenish, dirty, oily, or greyish-yellow . See 36 .
Erysipelatous eruptions.
Pustules, tetters and eruption of small nodules.
Large yellow blisters, like pemphigus, mostly on palms of hand and soles of feet ; burning.
Pompholyx in hand returning every year.
Phlyctenoid eruption, discharging a thin, yellow fluid, similar to that appearing in vomit and leucorrhœa. θ Epilepsy.
Moist tetters, with suppurating places resembling flat ulcers, in mane of horses.
Bluish-black swelling around (thumb) nail, followed by suppuration. θ Panaritium.
Ulcers, with burning pains.
Malignant pustule.
Carbuncles ; blue far around.
Carbunculus pestilentialis.
Chilblains.

Stage of life, constitution

Boy, æt. 6, inclination to touch genitals.
Boy, æt. 11, good constitution ; epileptic attack six months ago, without apparent cause.
Woman, æt. 30, wreck in mind and body from epilepsy.
Woman, æt. 40, suffered thirty years with epileptic spasms.
Woman, æt. 24, suffered for more than a year with epilepsy.
Child, æt. 6, had some poison spirted into his right eye by a toad, during a dry, hot June day in Rome.

Relations

Antidoted by : Laches., Senega .
Compare : In convulsions from low grades of suppuration, Arsen., Canthar., Laches., Tarent . ; in epilepsy, aura starting in solar-plexus, Artem., Calc. ost., Nux vom., Silica ; aura starting in arm, Laches.,
Sulphur ; in chorea, patient cannot walk, must run or jump, Kali brom., Natr. mur . ; in masturbation, impotence, etc., Hyosc., Mercur ., Sulphur ; in malignant
pustule, Antim. crud., Laches . ; in bullæ, panaritia, etc., Hepar, Laches., Phosph. ac., Silica .
Cubebæ is similar to Bufo (Lippe).
Complementary : Salamandra (epilepsy, cerebral softening).

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica

James Tyler Kent · Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica · homeoint.org / Séror HTML text (Kent d. 1916; public domain)

Lecture

The little lands along the back of the toad's neck, when squeezed with forceps, ooze a secretion which is soluble in alcohol and has been proved, this is the subject we will now consider.

Bufo satyhienis is the one I use in practice. Bufo is a wonderful medicine, it profoundly affected the mind and especially the intellectual faculties, including confusion of mind and loss of memory until the patient gradually goes towards a state of imbecility.

The greatest use of this medicine will be found in nervous conditions, throbbings, jerking and spasmodic condition of muscles, ulceration of the skin and mucous membranes, and all this in such patients as are tending towards a state of imbecility, a state of confusion or weakness of mind.

The imbecility is more frequent in Bufo than the active states of insanity or mania, yet these appear occasionally through the remedy.

The first symptom in the text reads,

"Desire for solitude in order to practice masturbation."

This alone throws a flood of light upon the nature of the remedy; the lack of government, the lack of control over the sexual longing, and the low-mindedness whereby he is willing to abandon himself to the lower things that are in the human race, to perverted practices and vices. It tells a great story.

"Whimpered, then cried, until he fell into a state of coma."

These states, as brought out clinically, are manifested in adult people who act as if they were children. An aspect of child-like simplicity is present and the mind returns to a state of child-like innocence.

An adult takes on the ways of a child, as a state of imbecility. This mental state is especially found under Baryta carb. in adults who have never developed beyond childhood, who have always remained children.

A person reasons like a child, talks like a child, whimpers like a child, cries like a child, wants to be petted like a child; so it is in Baryta carb. We find this state of mind in children who have developed epilepsy, but we do not prescribe this remedy on account of the epilepsy; the child has not developed properly, and the epilepsy is only one of the manifestations.

The cause is far back, and is really the psoric condition. Thereby the mental state has not developed, the child has not grown into a man or woman in intellectual attainments or wisdom, and remains as a whimpering, screaming child.

This lack of development is found in Bufo and in Baryta carb .; they are related to each other in that the child-like state remains while the body grows.

We see in these medicines the fear and simplicity that belongs to the child; always sickly, deficient, never reaching adult fullness or growth, always a child.

"How much like a child that woman appears," or

"How much like a child that man is."

We say that of some old people, they are so childish. The old routinists have said of those people who are prematurely old or have taken on senility, that they need Baryta carb.

This medicine also stands out in bold type for those prematurely senile; the man at fifty acts like an old broken-down man of eighty; he has lost all he had five or six years ago, and has taken on a child-like simplicity and innocence, an appearance of imbecility.

Then it is that we think of this medicine. Baryta carb. has hitherto been the leading one, but Bufo is also very important.

"Left his bed after apathy and ran like mad through the house."

There it branches off from the condition of imbecility to that of excitement of mind. Most of the Bufo patients will be passive, placid, not in a state of excitement or mania, but passive in everything. Feeble-minded, simple, child-like.

"Weak memory and idiotic."

"Longs for solitude, yet dreads being alone."

"Angry, bites at surrounding objects."

"Easily laughs or cries."

It has been used in delirium tremens, during the stages of excitement and mental prostration, biting and grasping things.

"Titters," now that is more expressive than to say she laughs, she titters at every little thing that is said. Titters and says foolish things; titters over things that are not laughable; everything said seems to be funny to this simple, child-like woman.

You know a child laughs and is merry, but we do not expect such things in adults except when what is said is particularly ludicrous. These symptoms are sometimes met in epileptics.

"Easily laughs or cries;" easily affected, and extremely sensitive, nervous nature. Again, the most extreme anxiety, night and day, wringing the hands and talking about something awful that is going to happen when there is nothing to happen; some awful event, some terrible thing in the future, it is all darkness and despair, walks the floor and wrings the hands and says over and over the same awful things that are going to take place, when in reality the future is safe and there is nothing to be anxious about.

This occurs in cases of insanity. Such as are approaching imbecility are passive, they have a lack of comprehension of things around; but those that are going into. insanity have an increased imagination of the things that surround them. Where these symptoms have been induced by secret vice.

"Become angry if misunderstood."

This is approaching insanity. It is well known to medical men and to the courts that these conditions of insanity intermingle in the human race with epilepsy, and that an epileptic is not always held responsible for murder, because it is so well known that the epileptic state of the body is not confined merely to the spasms of the muscles, the sudden falling, foaming at the mouth, clonic spasms, biting of the tongue, etc. These alone do not constitute all of epilepsy.

The epileptic suffers from an underlying psoric state, which in one is a state of imbecility and in another a state of epileptic manifestation, and in another a state of insanity. Those who inherit this peculiar constitution, even in one family, exhibit it in different ways; one will be insane, another an imbecile, another will die of cancer and another will be an epileptic.

Bufo, underlies such a constitution; it is an antipsoric, it is a deep-seated, vital remedy; it goes to the very heart and interior of man's physical nature, and from this mental state it may manifest itself in his ultimates, the fingers and toes, eyes, ears, etc., so that even the touch is disordered.

There are patches upon the skin that have loss of sensation and others with increased sensations. Spasms of various muscles, sometimes local spasm and sometimes complete epileptic spasms with bleeding at the mouth, unconsciousness, falling down. Besides such grave state, it has milder states that may be called dizziness or vertigo.

The milder conditions of dizziness have gone on to sudden falling and collapse, a sudden state of unconsciousness with spasms and biting of the tongue. In the proving we find attacks of apathy and partial coma; numbness of the brain. So we see in the text that we have conditions ranging from mere dizziness to a complete and profound epilepsy.

The study of this remedy may reveal to you something of the, nature of epilepsy. From the allopathic treatises on epilepsy you will only get the appearance of the fit, and the fit is treated as epilepsy. They hunt for remedies to subdue and control the fit, thinking when they have done that they have cured the patient.

They feed these patients Bromides in large doses and now and then they branch off into some side issue, but go back to the Bromides and stupefy and make imbeciles of their patients. Prescribing for the fit has never cured the patient,

"Congestive headaches."

Eyes

Again, its action on the circular fibres of the abdominal aorta furnishes a key-note in epilepsy. An awful sensation of anxiety is felt in the abdomen and then there is a sudden loss of consciousness; the aura or warning is first felt in the abdomen. Some writers have described it as in the solar plexus. The awful sensation occurs as an anxiety and then he falls.

"Cannot bear the sight of brilliant objects."

"Amaurosis," etc.

"Pupils largely dilated and unaffected by light before attack."

"More acute vision."

It has spasmodic conditions of the eye, but increased vision and diminished sensation, and lastly a tendency to profound trophic disturbance.

Little blisters form upon the eye. These little blisters also form upon the skin, and the integument is thrown off and there is. no healing. Ulcers will form upon the cornea.

"Eyes become highly injected."

Paralytic conditions of the lids and muscles of the eye. There is disturbance of all the senses.

"Music is unbearable."

Ears

One who is in a natural state is expected to enjoy beautiful music, whereas in this remedy music brings about a state of anxiety. The sense of hearing is so violently exaggerated that every little noise is distressing.

"Purulent otorrhoea."

"Swelling of the ears; of the parotids."

"Phlegmonous erysipelas about the face."

"Falling out of the teeth" in the peculiar disease known as Rigg's disease.

"Stuttering and stammering; gets angry when incoherent speech is not understood."

"Biting the tongue."

"Tongue cracked, bluish black."

"Mouth wide open before an attack," showing that the spasm is coming on; and this condition increases so that when the attack is not on, he drops the jaw and looks stupid as if be bad forgotten everything.

Bufo often corresponds to lesser attacks resembling vertigo. In this state people do not fall, and for a few seconds everything is blank, or sometimes they do things automatically in these moments.

A person, in this mild form of epileptic vertigo, will hardly show anything, but he will sometimes come to a perfect standstill and then go on as if nothing had happened. What occurred during that attack he knows nothing of.

Sometimes be will continue right on doing what he was doing, and nobody will know of the spell. Sometimes when driving he will turn his horses around, and when he comes to himself he will know by this that he Ins had one of his attacks.

Stomach and abdomen

Quite a number of medicines have produced that condition of the mind, a state in which he goes on doing things automatically.

"Vomiting after drinking."

"Yellow fluid in vomit. "

'Vomiting of bile or blood."

"Spasms end by convulsive movements in abdomen."

It says in the text,

"The attack originates in abdomen;" that is, he has a feeling of anxiety in the abdomen previous to the attack.

"Hemorrhoidal tumors."

"Urine passes involuntarily."

The urine passes involuntarily in such as arc becoming imbeciles from the epileptic attacks, in approaching softening of the brain, which is really what is taking place, a form of softening, a lowered form of integrity.

Genitals

As you might suppose, there is great disturbance of the sexual organs, this is usually the case in insane people. Sometimes the sexual organs are in a state of excitement and sometimes in a state of impotency, but the patient is low-minded, inclination to carry the band constantly to the genital organs.

"Semen is discharged too quickly without pleasurable sensation."

Spasms or epilepsy comes on during coition. It has also inflammation of glands, especially about the groins, such as are found in syphilis.

In the female sexual organs burning is the most striking feature burning in the ovaries and uterus. It is one of the most troublesome, symptoms you will have to contend with, when a case of dysmenorrhoea has burning in the ovaries and in the pelvis, at the coming on of or during menses.

Burning in the genital organs, in the ovaries, and rending, tearing pains that extend down the thighs. This forms a troublesome kind of dysmenorrhoea, especially when there are cysts and hydatids about the ovaries. Some will tell you that these cannot be cured.

All these conditions are curable!

"Burning beat and stitches in ovaries."

"Distending, burning pains or cramps in uterus."

This remedy has been a great palliative for these awful burning pains that occur in carcinoma of the uterus; stitching, rending, tearing pains in carcinoma of the uterus, when the pains run outwards into the legs, with ulceration of the uterus and cervix; tearing, stinging pains and bloody, offensive leucorrhea.

Bufo is full of offensive discharges; bloody, offensive leucorrhea. You would think you had the odor of gangrene or gangrenous erysipelas in the room from smelling these discharges.

"Enormous blisters upon tumefied uterus, discharging a thin, serous, yellow fluid."

This occurs in epileptic states.

"Menstruation suppressed,"

"too early with headache,"

"burning in uterus and vagina."

"Spasms occur just before menses."

That is, girls who are subject to epilepsy have increase of spasm at the time of menses, sometimes before, sometimes during.

"Attacks worse at time of menses."

"During menses contractive pain in liver."

"Yellow fluid leucorrhoea."

When the girl lies in an unconscious condition during the menstrual period and has several epileptic spasms which she has no realization of until told and then she is too much dazed to understand it she needs Bufo.

Bufo has been a great palliative in cancer of the mammae, for the burning pains and for the blisters that form roundabout; large, yellow blisters; blisters that fill with yellow, serous discharge; it has been especially useful when the milk is mixed with blood.

Larynx and chest

It corresponds to the low form of inflammation of the blood- vessels, like milk leg, when the veins feet like whipcords in the thighs.

"Burning, excoriation in larynx."

You see how burning runs all through the remedy; it occurs wherever there are inflammatory conditions or where nerves are sensitive and painful, and the nerve sheath becomes painful and sensitive to touch along its course hence its use in sciatica and other inflammatory conditions of large nerves.

"Violent cough with vomiting."

Cough with gagging and retching. Expectoration is bloody or formed of pure blood. Sensation of coldness in chest.

"Burning like fire in lungs."

Burning extending up into the larynx; gangrene of the lungs.

"Laryngitis, haemoptysis."

Burning in the chest with all these affections, such as have been described. It has the phtisical constitution when the epilepsy has been turned aside by strong drugs. It has the phtisical constitution when discharges have been suppressed by closing fistulous openings, or by stimulating ointments.

It has those low forms of disease which must develop when outward manifestations have been suppressed. The constitution that belongs to the very nature of the individual will come out in epilepsy, in insanity, in imbecility, in cancer, in some one of the low forms of disease. This medicine corresponds to a low type and constitution.

The nature of the Bufo constitution is such that it is capable of giving out symptoms similar to those produced by low forms of disease.

He is not likely to live to be old, he A likely to break down at forty. She comes to her end by cancer of uterus or breast, or by imbecility. He comes to his end with low forms of disease, malignant manifestations. This medicine, therefore goes into the very life.

Children develop an unusual tendency to low forms of chronic disease; they do not possess a good healthy nature, a good sound brain; but they are feeble, they break out with eruptions, they go into consumption. Persons of twenty-five have a tendency to break down, and when the symptoms look like those of Bufo this medicine will, in a wonderful way, make that constitution all over.

Such cases as these only get well by a violent turmoil and by tremendous aggravations. When we approach these diseases by easy stages the patient does not got so much disorder or excitement, but is not cured so radically. Old diseases would reappear, old gonorrheal would be brought back, and old syphilitic states come up, ulcers attack the mucous membranes, etc.

Such turmoil is likely to occur when you get a deep acting remedy, such as brings all the disease out that was lurking within.

"Attacks ushered in by a jerk in the nape of neck."

"Swelling of bone she of Ea."

"Arms became stiffened before an attack."

"Numbness of left arm."

"Blister in hand, which recurred annually."

"Panaritium."

A great many troubles occur in the extremities, paralytic affections, etc.

A warm room is unbearable; headaches and flushes of the face are made worse in a warm room or when near the stove, better from bathing or in cold air. Complaints better from putting the feet in hot water.

Trembling. Some of the epileptic attacks occur with regular periodicity, others occur irregularly. We have no remedy for epilepsy.

Does that mean we must leave the human race to go on and suffer with epilepsy?

We do have plenty of remedies for people who have epilepsy. A large percentage of the cases are curable.

After what has been said concerning the nature of this remedy I am sure you will read the symptoms with great interest.

When you read the symptoms, they will cling around the constitution and nature of such individuals and such states as have been described.

This is one of the remedies that you will need to use for the development of feeble-minded children whether there are spasms or not.