Cimicifuga Racemosa cimic.

Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica

H. C. Allen · Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica · homeoint.org / Medi-T HTML text; edition not stated by the mirror (first edition 1898, Allen d. 1909)

Keynote

Puerperal mania; thinks she is going crazy (compare, Syph.); tries to injure herself. Mania following disappearance of neuralgia. Sensation as if a heavy, black cloud had settled all over her and enveloped her head so that all is darkness and confusion. Illusion of a mouse running under her chair (Lac. c., Aeth.). Ciliary neuralgia; aching or sharp, darting, shooting pains in globes, extending to temples, vertex, occiput, orbit, < going up stairs, > lying down. Heart troubles from reflex symptoms of uterus or ovaries. Heart's action ceases suddenly; impending suffocation; palpitation from least motion (Dig.). Menses: irregular; exhausting (Alum., Coc.); delayed or suppressed by mental emotion, from cold, from fever; with chorea, hysteria or mania; increase of mental symptoms during. Spasms: hysterical or epileptic; reflex from uterine disease; worse during menses; chorea < left side. Severe left-sided infra-mammary pains (Ust.). Sharp, lancinating, electric-like pains in various parts, sympathetic with ovarian or uterine irritation; in uterine region, dart from side to side. Pregnancy: nausea; sleeplessness; false labor-like pains; sharp pains across abdomen; abortion at third month (Sab.). During labor: "shivers" in first stage; convulsions, from nervous excitement; rigid os; pains severe, spasmodic, tedious, < by least noise. After-pains, worse in the groins. When given during last month of pregnancy, shortens labor, if symptoms correspond (Caul., Puls.). Excessive muscular soreness, after dancing, skating, or other violent muscular exertion. Rheumatic pains in muscles of neck and back; feel stiff, lame, contracted; spine sensitive, from using arms in sewing, type writing, piano playing (Agar., Ran. b.). Rheumatism affecting the bellies of the muscles; pains stitching, cramping. Rheumatic dysmenorrhoea.

Relations

Similar: to, Caul., and Puls. in uterine and rheumatic affections; to, Agar., Lil., Sep.

Aggravation

During menstruation; the more profuse the flow the greater the suffering.

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

This remedy is more particularly adapted to women.

Mental

In all her mental symptoms there is a want of natural coherence. Thinks she is growing crazy, and imagines all sorts of strange appearances, and that some one is going to kill her. In her talk, which is almost incessant, she is constantly changing from one subject to another. Puerperal mania. She is despondent and seems to feel under a heavy black cloud.

Head

Much pain in the head and feels as if the top would fly off: pressing as from within outward, pain worse by ascending. Pain as if a bolt had been driven from the neck to the vertex, worse at every throb of the heart. Pain in occiput, shooting down the back of the neck. Headache down to the nose.

Eyes

Pain in eyeballs or in temples; shooting into the eyeballs so severe it seems she would go crazy. Severe pain darting into left eye, feels as if needles were run into the eyeball.

Ears

Sensible to the least noise, with spasmodic labor pains.

Nose

Every inhalation seems to bring the cold air in contact with the brain.

Face

Face bluish. Wild, fearful expression. Forehead cold; deadly pale. Suddenly very faint, face ashy white.

Stomach

Nausea, eructations, vomiting and headache. Faint, sinking feeling at the epigastrium.

Abdomen

Colicky pains, better bending double and after stool. Sharp pains across the epigastrium. Abdominal muscles sore.

Stools

Frequent, thin, dark, offensive stools. Alternate diarrhœa and constipation.

Urine

Urine frequent and quantity increased.

Sexual

Female: Pains in the uterine region, darting from side to side. Bearing down in uterine region and small of the back. As if something were pressing out. Leucorrhœa, with sensation of weight in the uterus. Profuse, early: dark, coagulated; scanty and coagulated menses, irregular, delayed or suppressed. Giving it during the last month is said to shorten labor. In pregnancy, nausea; false, labor-like pains. Sharp pains across abdomen: sleeplessness. Threatened miscarriage at the third month, Labor pains severe. Spasmodic with fainting fits and cramps. Convulsions in labor from nervous excitement. "Shivers", in first stage of labor. After-pains worse in the groins. Lochia suppressed, by cold or emotions. Inframammary pains, worse left side. Burning in the mammæ. Rigidity of os uteri in labor. Puerperal mania. Feels strange, talks incoherently, screams, tries to injure herself.

Larynx

Tickling in throat, with violent cough. Cough dry, short, constant, worse at night or at every attempt to speak. Sharp pains in chest from side to side.

Heart

Pains from region of heart, over the chest and down the left arm. Irregularity in its beats.

Neck and Back

Head and neck retracted. Rheumatism of neck and back. Violent ache in small of the back.

Extremities

Constant irregular motion of left arm; aching in all the limbs.

Generalities

Rheumatism. Chorea. Excessive muscular soreness; general bruised feeling as if sore. Sharp, lancinating pains, with ovarian or uterine irritation. Hysterical or epileptic spasms.

Worse

From cold air.

Similar to

Cauloph. in uterine and rheumatic affections.

Seven Hundred Red Line Symptoms from Materia Medica

J. W. Hutchison · Seven Hundred Red Line Symptoms from Materia Medica · rewritten from Hering's and other materia medicas

Red line symptom

Pains in every portion of the head, but more in vortex and occiput; pressing and aching; sometimes extending to shoulders and down the spine. Top of head feels as if it would fly off. Rush of blood to the head, brain fools too large for the cranium, after suppressed uterine discharges or suddenly ceasing pains. Intense aching pain in eyeballs, worse from moving the head. Nervous or muscular irritation, of a rheumatism or neuralgic origin, especially in delicate or hysterical women, who are affected with more or less disease of the generative organs. Neuralgic or rheumatic dysmenorrhoea, with great mental and nervous Irritability, sleeplessness, low spirited, sensitive. Chronic affections at puberty, the menses not appearing. Menses suppressed from cold or emotions. Bearing down in uterine region and small of back, limbs feel heavy and torpid. Rheumatic pains in muscles of the neck and back, feeling of stiffness and contraction. Severe aching pains in the back, down the thighs, through the hips, with heavy pressing down. Aching or soreness of all the muscles. Sharp, lancinating pains in various parts, associated with ovarian or uterine irritation.

Homœopathic Materia Medica

William Boericke · Homœopathic Materia Medica · 9th edition

Common name

Black Snake-root (CIMICIFUGA - ACTAEA RACEMOSA - MACROTYS)

General

Has a wide action upon the cerebrospinal and muscular system, as well as upon the uterus and ovaries. Especially useful in rheumatic, nervous subjects with ovarian irritation, uterine cramps and heavy limbs. Its muscular and crampy pains, primarily of neurotic origin, occurring in nearly every part of the body, are characteristic. Agitation and pain indicate it. Pains like electric shocks here and there. Migraine. Symptoms referable to the pelvic organs prominent. "It lessens the frequency and force of the pulse soothes pain and allays irritability".

Mental

Sensation of a cloud enveloping her. Great depression, with dream of impending evil. Fears riding in a closed carriage, of being obliged to jump out. Incessant talking. Visions of rats, mice, etc. Delirium tremens; tries to injure himself. Mania following disappearance of neuralgia.

Head

Wild feeling in brain. Shooting and throbbing pains in head after mental worry, over-study, or reflex of uterine disease. Waving sensation or opening and shutting sensation in brain. Brain feels too large. Pressing-outward pain. Tinnitus. Ears sensitive to least noise.

Eyes

Asthenopia associated with pelvic trouble. Deepseated throbbing and shooting pains in eyes, with photophobia from artificial light. Intense aching of eyeball. Pain from eyes to top of head.

Stomach

Nausea and vomiting caused by pressure on spine and cervical region. Sinking in epigastrium (Sep; Sulph). Gnawing pain. Tongue pointed and trembling.

Female

Amenorrhœa (use Macrotin preferably). Pain in ovarian region; shoots upward and down anterior surface of thighs. Pain immediately before menses. Menses profuse, dark, coagulated, offensive with backache, nervousness; always irregular. Ovarian neuralgia. Pain across pelvis, from hip to hip. After-pains, with great sensitiveness and intolerance to pain. Infra-mammary pains worse, left side. Facial blemishes in young women.

Respiratory

Tickling in throat. Dry, short cough, worse speaking and at night. Cough when secretion is scanty-spasmodic, dry with muscular soreness and nervous irritation.

Heart

Irregular, slow, trembling pulse. Tremulous action. Angina pectoris. Numbness of left arm; feels as if bound to side. Heart's action ceases suddenly, impending suffocation. Left-sided infra-mammary pain.

Back

Spine very sensitive, especially upper part. Stiffness and contraction in neck and back. Intercostal rheumatism. Rheumatic pains in muscles of back and neck. Pain in lumbar and sacral region, down thighs, and through hips. Crick in back.

Extremities

Uneasy, restless feeling in limbs. Aching in limbs and muscular soreness. Rheumatism affecting the belly of muscles, especially large muscles. Choreic movements, accompanied by rheumatism. Jerking of limbs. Stiffness in tendo-Achilles. Heaviness in lower extremities. Heavy, aching, tensive pain.

Sleep

Sleeplessness. Brain irritation of children during dentition.

Skin

Locally and internally for ivy poisoning.

Modalities

Worse, morning, cold (except headache), during menses; the more profuse the flow, the greater the suffering. Better, warmth, eating.

Relationship

Compare: Rhamnus Californica (muscular pains, lumbago, pleurodynia, acute rheumatism). Derris pinnata (Neuralgic headaches of rheumatic origin). Aristolochia milhomens (pain in tendo-Achilles; diabetes). Caulophyl; Pulsat; Lilium; Agar; Macrotin (especially for lumbago).

Dose

First to thirtieth attenuation, third most frequently used.

Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics

E. B. Nash · Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics · homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML text (Nash d. 1917; public domain)

Leaders

Nervous symptoms, twitchings, spasms, convulsions, neuralgias; chills without shaking < at menstrual period. Muscular rheumatism; stiff neck, drawing head back; can't turn the head; rheumatism of the belly of muscles, by preference.

Headaches pressing outward; or upward, as if top of head would fly off, or into eyes (ciliary neuralgia), or down nape into spine.

Gloomy, sad, sleepless; thinks she will go insane.

Menorrhagia; pains run through hips into thighs, passing down.

Climacteric; infra-mammary pains left side, persistent.

Actæa racemosa is another remedy which exerts a strong influence upon the female organism. The nervous system manifests its action in a multitude of symptoms, many of them being what is known as hysterical in character. There are twitchings, spasms, convulsions, neuralgias and mental symptoms in abundance. She shivers (nervous chill without coldness), faints, talks incessantly, frequently changing subjects; is grieved and troubled, with sighing, or is very gloomy with sleeplessness; thinks she is going insane, etc.

In the head there are severe pains, pressing outward, as if the top of the head would fly off, or running into the eyes, which ache fearfully or the pains settle in the occiput and shoot down the neck. There are very few, if any, remedies that have worse ciliary neuralgia than Actæa racemosa.

In the female sexual organs it cures "pains in the uterine region, darting from side to side." The menstrual function is performed irregularly. Sometimes the flow is scanty, but more generally profuse, and we have the mental and nervous symptoms above enumerated in abundance, with these irregularities. It is one of our best remedies in menorrhagia, when there is "severe pain in the back, down the thighs and through the hips, with heavy pressing down," as I have often proven. It is also excellent in infra-mammary pains in the left side during the climacteric, as I have also proven.

Also in backache and spinal irritation sympathetic with uterine troubles. It cures sharp lancinating pains in various parts, either nervous or muscular, if they are connected with uterine disturbances. In rheumatism the affection attacks the belly of the muscle by preference. Actæa is a many-sided remedy and adapted to nervous troubles of many forms.

Modalities

Modalities: < menstrual period and during climacteric.

The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica

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

Mind

Sensation as if a heavy black cloud had settled all over her, and enveloped her head, so that all was darkness and confusion, while, at the same time, it weighed like lead on her head.
Forgetful.
Unable to find right word in speaking.
Mind dull and heavy.
Thinks she is going crazy.
Often started by illusion of a mouse running from under her chair.
Imagines strange objects about bed, as rats, sheep, etc. θ Delirium tremens.
Delirium with great headache. θ Puerperal fever.
Delirium with nausea, retching, dilated pupils.
Fear of death ; fears those in house will kill him ; saw wires encaging him ; visions of rats and of strange objects. θ Delirium tremens.
Mania following disappearance of neuralgia.
Puerperal mania.
Desire for solitude, or to wander from place to place.
Answers questions hurriedly and evasively.
Declares she has been poisoned.
Incessant talking, changing from one subject to another. θ Delirium tremens.
Frequent sighs and ejaculations. θ Mental disorder.
Would not answer ; at other times very loquacious.
Feels grieved and troubled, with sighing ; next day a feeling of tremulous joy, with mirthfullness, playfulness and clear intellect.
Miserable dejected feeling ; anxious, weeping.
Mental depression, with suicidal mood ; also after checked neuralgia.
Great melancholy with sleeplessness.
Apprehensive and sleepless. θ Pregnancy.
Fears she will become crazy, with headache on vertex.
Fear of death.
Indifferent, taciturn, takes no interest in household matters. θ Mental disorder.
Irritable ; the least thing that goes wrong makes her angry.
Nervous and irritable.
Suspicious of everything, would not take medicine if she knew it. θ Mental disorder.
Restless and impatient, can read only a few minutes, must get up and walk about, yet soon tires.
Headache when reading or writing ; cannot write a letter.
Headache of students.
Mental emotions cause : amenorrhœa ; suppression of lochia .
Mind disturbed by disappointed love, business failures.
Feels faint at epigastrium when meeting a friend.
After fright : threatened abortion.

Sensorium

Constant dull feeling in vertex.
Dulness and heaviness in head ; like after "a spree."
Dizzy on rising in morning, with pain over eyes ; faintness, nausea and occasional vomiting. θ In mental diseases.
Vertigo, head feels too large and heavy ; when stooping, head swims.
Vertigo, dizziness with impaired vision.
Fainting fits generally with some uterine affection.
Sensation as if a heavy black cloud had settled all over her and enveloped her head, so that all was darkness and confusion. θ Mental disorder.

Inner head

Dulness in head as after "a spree."
Rush of blood to head, brain feels too large for cranium ; after suppressed uterine discharges or suddenly ceasing neuralgic pains.
Waving sensation in brain.
Opening and shutting sensation when moving head and eyes.
Dull frontal headache relieved by pressure.
Great pain in head and eyeballs, increased by slightest movement of head or eyeballs. θ Meningitis.
Sensation as if temples were compressed.
Headache down to nose.
Headache every day at same hour.
Severe pain in right side of head, back of orbit. θ After pains.
Aching and shooting pains in vertex, occiput, left temple, eye and ear ; < lying down ; hysterical crying.
Brain as if too large ; pressing from within outward.
Head feels as if pounded, full ; as if too large. θ Intermittent.
Top of head feels as if it would fly off, < going up-stairs ; declares she will go crazy.
Intense pain as if a ball had been driven from neck to vertex, < at every throb of heart.
Aching pain in head, particularly at occiput, only indoors ; < in afternoon and still more in evening, disappearing entirely at 9 P. M. after a walk in open air.
Great pain in head, back and limbs.
Pain over and in eyes, extending along back to occiput.
Excruciating pain in forehead, eyeballs and temples, with cold forehead on waking, 2 A. M.
Dull boring in forehead over left brow, 10 A. M.
Pain in forehead, temple and vertex, with fulness, throbbing and heat.
Dull pain in occiput, with shooting down back of neck.
Headache better in open air.

Outer head

Sensation as if vertex opened and let in cold air. θ Climaxis.

Sight and eyes

Peculiar wild look out of eyes. θ Delirium tremens.
Eyes expressionless. θ Cholera.
Dark spots before eyes.
Pupils dilated. θ Delirium.
Aching and heaviness of eyes.
Eyeballs painful, with lachrymation.
Sensation of enlargement of eyeballs ; they feel as if they would be pressed out of head.
Ulcerated cornea, with sharp pains through eye into head .
Eyes congested during headache.
Pain in centre of eyeballs, and also a sensation as if pain was situated between eyeball and orbital plate of parietal bone ; more severe in morning, < on going up-stairs.
Pain over eyes extending to occiput.
Ciliary neuralgia ; aching pains in eyeballs or in temples, extending to eyes, so severe, especially at night, it seemed as if patient would go crazy.
Ciliary neuralgia ; sharp, shooting pains from occiput through to eyes, or darting from eyes to top of head, with redness of eyes and photophobia ; < on right side, afternoon and night ; > on lying down.
Blisters on eyelids.
Severe pains darting into left eye ; feels as if needles were run into eyeball through cornea ; < on closing eyes ; sleepy, but cannot sleep on this account. θ Neuralgia.

Hearing and ears

Sensitive to least noise, with spasmodic labor-pains.
Singing in left, later in both ears.
Buzzing in ears. θ Puerperal fever.
Sweat behind ears.

Smell and nose

Pain in head followed by coryza and sore throat.
Coryza : dry in evening, white mucus during day ; sneezing ; aching pains in head and eyes, sensitive to cold air ; every inhalation seems to bring cold air in contact with brain.
Greenish, slightly bloody coryza.

Upper face

Face bluish. θ Puerperal fever.
Wild, fearful expression. θ Delirium tremens.
Face : pale ; eyes large and sunken, surrounded by dark rings.
Forehead feels cold ; deadly pale.
Neuralgia affecting malar bone, pain goes off at night, reappears next day.
Frequent flushes of heat, wants to be in open air.
Suddenly very faint, face became ashy white, weakness so great that she believed she was dying. θ Puerperal fever.

Lower face

Lips dry.
Lower lip cracked, as if bitten.
Jaw sunken. θ Typhus.

Teeth and gums

Toothache in neuralgic and rheumatic patients.
Thick mucus on teeth.

Taste, speech, tongue

Taste : disagreeable ; coppery.
Cannot speak a syllable, though she makes the effort.
Talking provokes cough.
Tongue : clean but pointed and trembling ; swollen . θ Cerebral diseases.

Inner mouth

Breath offensive.
Mouth and tongue feel warm and dry.
Spitting of thick, sticky saliva.

Palate and throat

Dry spot in throat, causing cough ; dryness of pharynx, with constant desire to swallow ; fulness in pharynx ; uvula and palate swollen ; neck stiff.
Hawks up a viscid, coppery tasting mucus.
Thick mucus lodges in throat.
Inflamed throat, pains awaking him at night.

Appetite, thirst. desires, aversions

No thirst, slight feeling of hunger in stomach ; rumbling in abdomen.
Appetite variable.
No appetite for dinner, wants to drink cold water ; little at a time suffices.
Great thirst. θ Puerperal fever.

Eating and drinking

After breakfast : headache > ; pain in left temple ; faint before breakfast, overfilled after.
After dinner : pain through chest.

Hiccough, belching, nausea and vomiting

Nausea and Vomiting
Eructations, with nausea, vomiting and headache, more in women.
Nausea with pain in region of kidneys.
Vomiting of a green substance ; groans, raves ; presses both hands to her head for relief.
Nausea, retching, dilated pupils, tremor of limbs. θ Delirium tremens.

Scrobiculum and stomach

Acute, darting pains in stomach.
Sinking or goneness in epigastrium, nausea, internal tremor ; women.
Faint sinking feeling at epigastrium with palpitation of heart.

Abdomen and loins

Periodical colicky pains, > bending double and after stool.
Flatulence, causing a sensation of fulness.
Severe pains in bowels, small of back and down limbs.
Excruciating pains in bowels, much rumbling and wind.
Sharp pain across hypogastrium. θ In uterine affections.
Abdominal muscles sore.

Stools and rectum

Frequent, thin, dark, offensive stools. θ Spotted fever.
Morning diarrhœa, of children.
Pains go from limbs to bowels, producing diarrhœa and partial retention of urine.
Alternate diarrhœa and constipation.

Urinary organs

Pressing in region of kidneys and small of back.
Irritable bladder.
Urine : profuse, pale, watery ; bloody, frequent ; scanty, hot.
Increased flow of urine makes her feel weak.
Sp. gr. 1.005, then 1.019, 1.020 ; deposit of uric acid.

Male sexual organs

Pain and tenderness in testicles.
Pain and retraction in right spermatic cord.

Female sexual organs

Spasms of broad ligaments.
Ovarian pains shoot up to side.
Severe pain in lower part of abdomen, < from motion.
Uterine neuralgia.
Pains in uterine region dart from side to side.
Dull dragging in uterine region, with frontal headache.
Bearing down as if something was passing out ; > lying down.
Bearing down in uterine region and small of back ; limbs feel heavy, torpid.
Great tenderness on pressure over uterine region.
Menses : profuse, early ; dark, coagulated blood ; scanty, slightly coagulated ; sharp pains across abdomen, has to double up ; labor-like pains ; debility between periods ; scanty
flow between menses.
Menses suppressed : by emotions ; from cold ; from fever.
Menses irregular, delayed or suppressed, with chorea, hysteria, or mental disease.
During menses ; hysterical or epileptic spasms ; increase mental symptoms ; "shivers."
Severe bearing-down pains.
Rheumatic dysmenorrhœa.
Leucorrhœa, with sensation of weight in uterus.
Exhausting menstruation ; with a young girl who was unable to open her eyelids.

Pregnancy. parturition. lactation

Given during last month, it shortens labor.
Complaints in pregnancy ; nausea : false labor-like pains ; sharp pains across abdomen ; sleeplessness .
Threatened miscarriage, third month ; nervous, anxious.
Labor-pains : severe, tedious or spasmodic, with fainting fits or cramps ; too strong, spasmodic ; feels < from least noise ; ceased for thirty-six hours.
Cardiac neuralgia in parturition.
Convulsions in labor from nervous excitement.
"Shivers," first stage of labor.
After pains, < in groins ; oversensitiveness ; nausea and vomiting.
Lochia, suppressed, by cold or emotions ; watery, mixed with small clots ; suddenly ceased (puerperal fever).
Inframammary pains, < left side.
Burning in mamma.
Rigidity of os uteri in labor (should be taken some weeks before parturition).
Puerperal fever.
Puerperal mania : does not know what is the matter with her head, it feels so strange, talks incoherently, screams, clutches her breast as though in pain, tries to injure herself.

Voice and larynx. trachea and bronchia

Hoarseness, roughness and scraping, < in evening ; very sensitive to cold air.
Tickling in throat, with violent cough.

Respiration

Frequent sighing, respiration quickened on waking.
Difficult breathing after slight exertion, with general feeling of illness.

Cough

Dry spot in throat causes cough.
Night cough, dry, constant, short. θ Incipient tuberculosis.
Cough at every attempt to speak.
Expectoration of a viscid, stringy mucus.

Inner chest and lungs

Severe pain in left chest, below fifth or sixth rib.
Pain in right side of chest, must lie quietly on back and press with hand ; breath short ; slight cough.
Congestion to chest from exposure to cold air, with dry cough, night-sweats and diarrhœa.
Pain through left lung and heaviness over heart.
Tuberculosis, not hereditary, but from exposure.
Sharp pains from side to side.
Acute pain from apex to base of right lung, < from every inspiration.

Heart, pulse and circulation

Palpitation from least motion.
Pains from region of heart, all over chest and down left arm ; palpitation ; unconsciousness ; cerebral congestion ; dyspnœa ; face livid ; cold sweat on hands ; numbness of body ; left arm numb and as if bound to side. θ Angina
pectoris.
Heart's action ceases suddenly ; impending suffocation.
Pulse weak, irregular, eighty per minute ; feeble in morning, with trembling and weakness.
Quick full pulse. θ Delirium tremens.
Sensation as if a heavy black cloud had settled all over her, and weighed like lead upon her heart. θ Mental disorder.

Outer chest

Pains about right chest, < from motion, extorting cries. θ Pleurodynia.

Neck and back

Head and neck retracted. θ Spotted fever.
Rheumatic pains in muscles of neck and back ; feeling of stiffness and contraction.
Cramp in muscles of neck on moving head.
Stiff neck from cold air, pain from moving even hands.
Sensitiveness of spine, especially in cervical and upper dorsal regions ; soreness of all muscles. θ Spotted fever.
Rheumatism of dorsal muscles.
Severe pain in back, down thighs and through hips, with heavy pressing down.
Violent aching in small of back. θ Uterine affections.
Weight and pain in lumbar and sacral regions, sometimes extending all around body.
Weak trembling pain in small of back.
Pulsating pains in lumbar region.
Dull, heavy aching in small of back, > by rest, < by motion.

Upper limbs

Severe pains down arms, with numbness as if a nerve had been compressed.
Excruciating pains in arms, < as evening approaches. θ Rheumatism.
Pains in muscles, < from motion.
Left arm feels as if bound to side. θ Chorea.
Constant irregular motions of left arm, which is useless. θ Chorea.
Cold sweat on hands.
Trembling of fingers, especially when writing.

Lower limbs

Aching in sacrum, lumbar region and down left leg. θ Sciatica.
Severe pain in ileo-sacral symphysis and down leg.
Pressure around hips, with pain in sacrum. θ Threatened miscarriage.
Fearful pains through lower limbs, like growing pains.
Rheumatic pains in joints, with heat and swelling.
Towards evening, soreness, aching and stiffness in region of tendo-achillis ; < walking ; soreness of heels as if bruised.
Dull aching-burning pain in second joint of right great toe, extending up limb.

Limbs in general

Aching in limbs.
Excessive muscular soreness.
Rheumatism affecting bellies of muscles ; cramping, stitching pains.
Uneasy feeling in limbs, causing restlessness.
Torpidity of limbs, with uterine affections.
Joints feel stiff in morning, as if he had worked hard day before.

Rest. position. motion

Rest : improves aching in back.
Wants to lie down and close eyes.
Lying down : shooting and aching in head < ; ciliary neuralgia > ; uterine troubles > ; jerking commences.
Must lie quietly on back : in chest pains.
Rising from bed : dizzy.
Stooping : head swims.
Bending double : colic > ; menstrual troubles >.
Must change position : to quiet jerking, in bed.
Walking : aggravates soreness, aching and stiffness of tendo-achillis.
After walking in open air : headache relieved.
Can scarcely walk : from trembling of legs.
Must walk about ; when restless and impatient.
Desire to move about : when restless.
Exertion : sighing, difficult respiration.
Motion : increases pain in head and eyeballs ; causes palpitation ; increases pain in right side of chest ; dull aching in back <.
Going up-stairs : aggravates feeling as if top of head would fly off ; pain in eyes <.
Moving head : causes opening and shutting sensation head ; produces cramps in muscles of neck.
Moving eyes : causes opening and shutting sensation of head.
Moving eyelids ; aggravates pain through left eye.
Moving hands : increases pains of stiff neck.
When writing : fingers tremble.
Clutches at breast : in puerperal mania.

Nerves

Nervous shuddering through upper and back part of body.
Twitching of fingers and toes.
Trembling of legs, scarcely able to walk.
Great debility between menses.
Irregular motion of limbs, < left ; legs unsteady. θ Chorea.
Alternate tonic and clonic spasms. θ Spotted fever.
Epilepsy, periodical convulsions, with uterine diseases.
Hysteric spasms.
Restless forenoon : desire to move about, not knowing where to go or what to do.
Nervous uneasiness during afternoon, so uneasy can scarcely fix his attention on any subject.
Paralytic affections.
Limbs cold, twitching, subsultus. θ Puerperal fever.

Sleep

Comatose state.
Sleeplessness : with excited brain. θ After nursing the sick. θ During pregnancy. θ Delirium
tremens.
Cannot sleep, because she feels numb all over. θ After an abortion.
Sleepy, but cannot sleep because of pain through left eye on closing lid.
Awakens 11 P. M. as in a fright.
Unpleasant dreams of being in trouble or in a sad plight.
After going to bed jerking commences on side on which he lis lying, must change position.

Time

Night : ciliary neuralgia < ; facial neuralgia > ; sore throat awakens ; cough constant ; sweats ; fever with clammy sweat.
Morning : dizzy ; pains in eyeballs < ; diarrhœa in teething children ; pulse feeble ; joints feel stiff.
At 2 A. M. : violent headache.
Forenoon : restless.
At 10 A. M. : dull boring in forehead, chilliness, heat, languor.
At 11 A. M. to noon : chilliness.
Day : mucous discharge in coryza ; facial neuralgia <.
Afternoon : headache ; ciliary neuralgia ; uneasy, nervous.
At 5 P. M. : chill, heat and sweat.
Towards evening : pains in arms < ; pain in region of tendo-achillis <.
Evening : headache ; coryza dry ; hoarseness <.
At 9 P. M. : headache disappears after a walk in open air.
At 11 P. M. : awakes as if frightened.

Temperature and weather

Cold air : seems to penetrate the system ; aching pains in head and eyes sensitive to it ; larynx sensitive to it ; from exposure congestion to the chest ; causes stiff neck ; when suffering with flushes of heat wants to be in cold air.
Open air : relieves headache.
In-doors : headache, mostly occipital.

Fever

Chilliness down back, from 11 to 12 M., with pain under left scapula.
Chilly before and during discharge. θ Dysmenorrhœa.
Chilliness, then heat ; languid, stretches her limbs, 10 A. M.
Feet and hands cold, then hot.
Chill, heat, sweat, alternating with dry skin, 5 P. M.
Chills, cold tremors from back ; hot flushes, then slight sweat on abdomen.
Night-sweats, diarrhœa. θ Tuberculosis of lungs.
Sweat smells offensive.
Skin cold and moist. θ Delirium tremens.
Fever during night with clammy sweat, pulse 150 and small, with great prostration. θ Puerperal fever.

Attacks, periodicity

Periodical : attacks of colic ; epileptic convulsions.
Pains come on suddenly.
Headache at intervals.
Headache every day at same hour.
Tendency to abort at third month.
Alternate : diarrhœa and constipation ; tonic and clonic spasms.

Locality and direction

Right : pains in head and back of orbit ; ciliary neuralgia ; pain in spermatic cord ; pain in chest ; aching in great toe.
Left : dull boring over brow, aching and shooting in temple, eye and ear ; pain in temple, inframammary pains ; pain in chest ; arm numb and seems bound to the side ; irregular motions of arm ; aching down leg ; pain under scapula, with chill.
Side to side : darting pains in uterine region ; pains in chest.
Behind forward, diagonally : shooting pains through head.
Below upward : shooting pains through head, ovarian pains ; aching and burning, beginning in right toe ; pains from limbs to bowels, causing diarrhœa.
Above downward : shooting from occiput along neck ; sharp pains in lung ; pain from heart ; pain in arms ; chilliness in back.
Within outward : pressure of brain ; pressure of eyeballs.
Without inward : sharp pains with keratitis.

Sensations

Like electric shocks here and there.
Feels faint at epigastrium when meeting a friend ; head feels too large and heavy ; as if a heavy black cloud had settled over her ; brain feels too large for cranium ; opening and shutting sensation when moving head and eyes ; as if temples were
compressed ; head as if pounded ; as if top of head would fly off ; as if a ball had been driven from neck to vertex ; as if vertex opened and let in cold air ; as if eyes were enlarged and would be pressed out of head ; as if needles were run into eyeball
through cornea ; bearing down in uterine region and small of back ; head feels strange, puerperal mania ; l. arm numb as if bound to side ; numbness in arms as if a nerve had been compressed ; like growing pains through legs ; uneasy feeling in limbs ;
stiff joints as after hard work ; nervous shuddering.
Sharp, lancinating pains in various parts, associated with ovarian or uterine irritation.
Whole body, especially arms, feels numb.
General bruised feeling as if sore.
Pricking all over.
Pain : over eyes ; in head and eyeballs, in right side of head back of orbit ; in back and limbs ; in centre of eyeballs ; over eyes extending to occiput ; through chest ; under l. scapula ; region of kidneys ; in bowels ; small of back
and limbs ; in testicles ; in right spermatic cord ; in lower abdomen ; from heart all over chest and down left arm ; in back, down thighs, through hips ; down arms ; in muscles : in ileo-sacral symphysis ; in sacrum ; in limbs.
Aching pains : in head ; eye and ear ; in occiput ; in eyes ; in small of back ; in sacrum ; down left leg ; in region of tendo-achillis.
Sharp pains : through eye into head ; across hypogastrium ; from apex to base of right lung.
Excruciating pain : in forehead, eyeballs and temples ; in bowels ; in arms.
Shooting : in head ; in eye and ear ; down back of neck ; from occiput through to eyes ; from ovaries up to side.
Stitching pains : in muscles.
Darting : from eyes to top of head ; into left eye ; in stomach ; from side to side in uterus.
Dull boring : in forehead.
Dull aching burning ; in second joint of right great toe.
Weak trembling pain : in small of back.
Pulsating pain : in lumbar region.
Burning : in mamma.
Soreness : of abdominal muscles ; of muscles of spine ; in region of tendo-achillis ; of all muscles.
Dull pain : in occiput.
Dull, heavy aching : in small of back.
Rheumatic pains : in neck and back ; in joints.
Scraping : in larynx.
Bruised feeling : in heels.
Pressing : in region of kidneys ; around hips.
Waving sensation : in brain.
Throbbing : in head.
Fulness : in head ; from flatulence.
Sinking or goneness : in epigastrium.
Dull feeling : in vertex ; in head as after a "spree."
Dull dragging : in uterine region.
Cramp : in muscles of neck ; in muscles.
Heaviness : in head ; of eyes ; in uterus ; of limbs ; over heart ; in lumbar and sacral regions.
Tickling : in throat.
Heat : in head ; in mouth and tongue ; of urine ; of whole surface.
Dryness : of mouth and tongue ; spot in throat ; in pharynx.
Numbness : of left arm ; all over, preventing sleep.

Tissues

Affects nerves, especially of muscles. θ Myalgia.
Serous membranes.
Chorea from rheumatic irritation.

Touch. passive motion. injuries

Surface sensitive.
Pressure : relieves dull frontal headache ; desires it during vomiting ; aggravates tenderness over uterine region.
Must press with hand : during pain in right side of chest.

Skin

Eruption of white pustules over face and neck ; sometimes large, red, papular.
Prickling, itching, heat of whole surface.

Stage of life, constitution

Climacteric years.
Nervousness from anxiety or overexertion.
Rheumatic persons.
Children, teething ; diarrhœa.

Relations

Side relations, Act. spic . and other Ranunculaceæ.
Aconitum relieves sleeplessness.
Actea spicata, Bryon . and Pulsat ., similar in rheumatism.
Baptisia relieved headache and nausea.
Cauloph . similar in uterine and rheumatic affections.
Compare : Pulsat., Sepia, Nat. mur., Lil. tig ., and Ignat .

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica

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

Introduction

This remedy has been only meagerly proved, yet there are a few useful points in it.

From its proving we can perceive that it is similar to diseased states in the human family, and especially in women, namely, hysterical and rheumatic conditions.

The patient is always chilly, easily affected by cold, sensitive to cold and damp weather, which rouses the rheumatic state and develops a state of rheumatism not only in the muscles and joints all over the body, but also along the course of nerves.

In the general nervous disturbance there is a lack of will balance, or great disturbance in the voluntary system, which is the underlying feature of hysteria, the symptoms are intermingled with rheumatism.

With the pains we have soreness all over the body. Trembling, numbness, jerking of muscles.

Inability to exercise the will over the muscles of the body, turmoil in the voluntary system, with stiffness.

Tendency to take cold and thereby she takes on sensitiveness in the glands and larger organs, such as the liver and uterus.

Complaints in these organs come on from cold damp weather ( Dulcamara) and from being chilled.

The patient is sensitive to cold in all parts except the head, and is aggravated from becoming cold both in parts of the body and in general.

The headaches, however, are better in the open air and from cold, which is an exception and a particular, for the general feature is aggravation from cold.

Mind

There is a terrible mental state that alternates with physical states. It is an overwhelming sadness or gloominess, she is bowed down with sorrow.

Sits and mopes in great sadness, like Psorinum and Pulsatilla.

This may pass off instantly, or be brought on and aggravated from motion, from fear, from excitement, from taking cold.

Very commonly there is muscular soreness, a bruised feeling all over, with drawing and jerking.

This will let up very suddenly and leave a nervous, hysterical girl in a state of sadness, and she will sit and say nothing. When questioned perhaps she will break into tears or ex press in various ways the overwhelming sadness.

With the headache there is marked sadness. Changeable moods. The physical and the mental are all the time changing. Other symptoms alternate and change.

The jerking has made physicians see the resemblance to chorea in these hysterio-rheumatic constitutions.

The rheumatisms will change in a day into chorea, and again the choreic movements will keep on with the soreness throughout the muscles of the body.

The jerking and soreness and numbness often keep on together.

There are certain features about the chorea that should be noted. Jerking of the muscles when in a state of emotion or from becoming chilled. If any part of the body is pressed upon jerking of the muscles of that part will take place.

One of these nervous, rheumatic, hysterical subjects may not have chorea constantly, but as soon as she retires at night the whole of the side lain on will commence to jerk and prevent her from going to sleep. If she turns on the back the muscles of the back and shoulders will jerk and prevent sleep.

She turns over on the other side, but after a little while the muscles pressed on commence to jerk. All this time she has become so restless and nervous that she is driven to distraction.

The mind is full of all sorts of imaginations and the body is full of all sorts of uneasiness, because she can find no place to rest upon.

Sometimes the muscles are so sore that they cannot be lain upon for any length of time; sometimes it is a numbness, sometimes a jerking.

These things are queer, but they belong to the patient, affecting not one part, but the whole economy.

Full of fear, anguish and restlessness. Fear of death, excitement, suspicious, "Will not even take the medicine because there is, something wrong about it" .

It has a mania such as occurs in nervous, hysterical women, and it has cured puerperal mania.

Puerperal mania from taking cold during or soon after confinement. The remedy belongs especially to women, because its symptoms are so commonly associated with the affections of women.

Mental states following the disappearance of rheumatism is a strong feature. The rheumatism gets better, but the mental state becomes worse.

Sometimes the rheumatism disappears in short order and the mind is not disturbed, but then it is because a diarrhea has come on, with great soreness and aching in the bowels, or because a flow from the uterus has given relief.

There must be some relief or a disturbance will take place like Abrotanum. Some flow must be established, and hence the menstrual flow or diarrhea gives relief; otherwise the mind takes on trouble, the patient becomes gloomy, or has a low form of mental excitement.

One of the symptoms is quite descriptive of this sadness I have referred to:

"Sensation as if a black cloud had settled all over her," while at the same time it weighed like "lead upon the head."

This is entirely figurative. It can all be expressed in the word "sadness".

We will find "melancholy," "gloominess ... .. low spirited," etc., running all through out text, but the word "sadness" is just as broad as any of them.

Head

The headaches are rheumatic.

"Sore, bruised feeling all over the head. Bruised sensation in the occiput. Sore, bruised feeling in the top of the head, as if the top of the head would fly off."

"As if cold air was blowing upon the brain."

Yet most of these headaches are better by being in the cold air.

"Headache brought on from catching cold, from the weather changes, cold, damp weather."

There are many headaches. Pressing headache. Many of the headaches are intense, and described as if a bolt were extending down into the back of the neck. Soreness in the back of the neck. Pain in the back of the neck. Hysterical girls; they have much pain in the back of the neck.

With the headache the eyeballs are very sore, "painful to turn in any direction."

"Pain in the eyes, bruised pain in the head."

"Soreness in the abdomen; sore and bruised. Alternate diarrhea and constipation. Alternation of diarrhea and physical complaints."

Genitals female

We pass now to the female genitalia, which form a center for a great deal of trouble in the remedy. A routine saying about Actea is that it makes confinement easy.

That is not a legitimate saying concerning any remedy and such expressions encourage routine practice. It is true that when this remedy has been given to pregnant women in accordance with its symptoms it has proved capable of making confinement easy.

But the way it has been given has been the routine practice of giving it in the tincture or in the 2d or 3d, until the patient was under its influence even when it was not indicated, as it was not similar to the case.

But the homoeopathic physician never practices in this way. A remedy fits a general condition when the symptoms of that general condition are found in the remedy.

Remember that it does so because all the symptoms agree.

"Pain in the uterine region, darting from side to side. Bearing down and pressing out."

These bearing down sensations, taken with all the other states that relate to the patient in general, show that it is a very useful remedy in prolapsus of the uterus.

It has the relaxation of the parts. Do not suppose that our remedies are not sufficient to cure these conditions, when the symptoms agree. It is true that remedies will cure prolapsus when the symptoms agree, and at no other time.

If it fits the patient in general, these bearing down sensations will go away, the patient will be made comfortable, and an examination will finally show that the parts are in normal condition. You cannot prescribe for the prolapsus; you must prescribe for the woman. You cannot prescribe for one symptom, because there are probably fifty remedies that have that symptom.

There are menstrua! disorders in these hysterical rheumatic constitutions. Irregularity of the menstrual flow. It may be copious, suppressed or scanty. Severe pain all through the flow.

The more the flow, the greater the pain. That is very peculiar. Generally the flow will relieve pain, but with this remedy the pain is during the flow. Generally the most severe and most painful attack is at the beginning of the flow, and with some women again just after the flow has ceased.

Each woman is a law unto herself. In this remedy the sufferings are during the menstrual flow as a rule. The most severe mental symptoms, the most severe rheumatic symptoms, the most extreme jerking and cramping of the limbs and sleeplessness are during the menstrual flow.

During menses, epileptic spasms. All sorts of sufferings in the nerves. Soreness along the course of the nerves, soreness in the muscles or joints during the flow. Increase of mental symptoms.

Cold and chilly, must be wrapped rip.

"Rheumatism. Dysmenorrhoea."

"Soreness in the uterus and ovarian region. Lame, bruised feeling all, over; painful menstruation,"

and some one has named that rheumatic dysmenorrhoea, not a bad name.

Pregnancy

Many symptoms during pregnancy. It cures all sorts of conditions, in this kind of constitution, these nervous, rheumatic, fidgety women with jerking in the muscles.

So markedly do her troubles alternate with each other that alternation is in the nature of her case. You will commonly find that all the rest of her troubles have passed away, and that now nausea has come on. In all the years past she has had a hysterical constitution, but now when she is pregnant she has nausea all the time.

You will find when one set of symptoms becomes extremely severe others have temporarily subsided, and so they change about like Pulsatilla.

But the symptoms have to be taken collectively to get at the image of the patient. A woman will come to you with one group of symptoms today and may come back to you with an entirely different group in a couple of weeks.

These are very troublesome cases to prescribe for, and you have sometimes to take the symptoms a dozen times and put them all together as if she had felt them all in one day, and so make your prescription.

A hysterical patient is difficult to manage because of this changing of symptoms, and also because she has a tendency to deceive the doctor.

"Shivering in the first stage of labor. Hysterical manifestations through labor."

Pains have all ceased or are irregular, so that they do not good. No dilatation has taken place. But when the regular pains come on we have some important symptoms.

A pain comes on and it seems to be about to finish satisfactorily; it has been regular and prolonged until about two-thirds through, and all at once she screams out and grasps her hip-the pain has left the uterus and gone to the hip, causing a cramp in the hip, and she has to be rubbed and turned over.

This medicine will regulate the pains, and when the next pain comes it will hold on to the end.

So impressionable is this woman during confinement that if she is subjected to any emotion - such as having an emotional story told in the room - or if anything excitable occurs, the pain will stop.

If she has passed through the labor and the lochia has been established, from such a cause the lochia will stop, as if she had taken cold, and she will have cramps and troublesome after-pains, the milk will be suppressed, she will feel sore and bruised all over, and have fever.

This remedy should be compared with Caulophyllum, which has the following symptoms:

Weakness in the reproductive system of the woman. From weakness she is sterile, or she aborts in the early months of gestation. During parturition the contractions of the uterus are too feeble to expel the contents, and they are only tormenting.

Labor-like pains during menstruation with drawing pains in the thighs and legs, and even the feet and toes. Uterine haemorrhage from inertia of the uterus. Relaxation of muscles and ligaments. Heaviness, and even prolapsus. Subinvolution. Excoriating leucorrhoea. Menses too soon or too late.

She is sensitive to cold and wants warm clothing-quite unlike Pulsatilla. She is hysterical, like Ignatia. She is fretful and apprehensive. She is rheumatic, like Actea, only the small joints are most likely to be affected.

Later she suffers from after-pains, and they are felt in the inguinal region. Rheumatic stiffness of the back and very sensitive spine.

She is sleepless, restless and withal very excitable. This remedy has cured chorea at puberty when menstruation was late.

You need not be surprised that such an emotional subject has a fluttering, quick pulse, and irregular, action of the heart, but many of the most marked hysterical features are present without any disturbances whatever in the action of the heart.

"A feeling in the region of the heart as if the heart were sore, and as if it were enlarged."

"Back of head and neck sore."

The head is drawn back from contraction of the muscles at the nape. Violent aching down the back.

Rheumatism in the back. Impossible to lie upon the back because of the contraction of the muscles of the back. impossible to lie upon the slide of the body because of the contraction and jerking of the muscles.

"Numbness of the limbs. Trembling. Soreness."

The symptoms of the nerves are simply a reiteration of what I have said.

"Hysterical spasms. Convulsions. Trembling of the legs; hardly able to walk."

The numbness is such as is associated with paralysis. Paralytic weakness.

The best effects have resulted from the 30th, 200th, 1000th and still higher potencies, and from the use of medicine in single doses.

It is similar in some of its conditions to the Blue Cohosh.

Compare it with Puls., Sepia, Natr. mur., Lit. t., Caulophyllum, and Ign.

The Therapeutics of Fevers

H. C. Allen · The Therapeutics of Fevers · 1902 Library of Congress printing (Allen d. 1909; public domain)

Characteristic

Anxious, indifferent, melancholic, taci- turn.

Sensation as if a heavy black cloud had settled all over her and enveloped her head so that all is darkness and confusion.

Delirium: with nausea, retching, dilated pupils; incessant talking, changing from one subject to another; saw wires en- caging him; visions of rats and animals; dreams of negroes, devils, etc.; waking from sleep frightened; fear of death.

Head and neck retracted.

Nervous, intense restlessness.

Menses: irregular; exhausting (Alum., Coc.); delayed or suppressed by mental emotion, from cold, from fever; with chorea, hysteria or mania; increase of mental symptoms during; severe left-sided infra-mammary pains (Ust.).

Spasms: hysterical or epileptic; reflex from uterine disease; worse during menses; chorea < left side.

Violent pains in muscles of neck and back; feel stiff, lame, contracted; spine sensitive, from using arms in sewing, type writing, piano playing (Agar., Ran. b.).

Rheumatism affecting the bellies of the muscles; pains stitching, cramping. Excessive muscular soreness.

Rheumatic dysmenorrhœa.

Sharp, lancinating, electric-like pains in various parts, sympathetic with ovarian or uterine irritation; in uterine region, dart from side to side.

Aggravation

During menstruation: the more profuse the flow the greater the suffering.

Type

Yellow fever; cerebro-spinal fever.

Chill

Down the back from 11-12 M. Chill, then heat, then sweat, alternating with dryness of skin, 5 P. M. Chill, cold tremors from the back; hot flushes, then sweat on the abdomen.