Colchicum Autumnale colch.

DIGESTIVE TRACT. HEART; pericardium. Circulation. Kidneys. Tissues: MUSCLES. Ligaments. Fibrous. Serous. JOINTS; small.

MOTION. Touch. Night. Stubbing toes. Vibration. WEATHER: Cold; damp; rooms. Changing. Autumn. Slight exertion. Checked sweat. Stretching. Sundown to sunrise.

Warmth. Rest. Doubling up. Sitting.

COLD AND WEAK, BUT SENSITIVE AND RESTLESS. Irritable and sensitive to impressions, strong odors, etc. Tearing, digging, drawing pains. Many joints are attacked. Rapid sinking. Moist collapse. Creepings. Small, rapidly shifting areas of severe pain, but little swelling. Subacute states, that finally attack the heart. Cardio-arthritic affections. Dropsy.

Depressed. Irritable and sensitive; every little hurt pains terribly. Sensitive to odors and impressions. Unequal pupils. Acrid tears. Dark nostrils. ACUTE SMELL; odors nauseate, even to fainting, etc. Pinched, sunken face. Mouth hangs open. Flow of saliva, with a sense of dryness. Glossitis. Thirsty, but LOATHES THE SMELL, or sight of food; > lying quietly. NAUSEA. Retching. Burning or icy coldness in stomach. Meteorism. Diarrhœa, then gouty effects. Choleraic or shreddy, gelatinous, mucus stools, then tenesmus or spasm of anus. Mucous colitis; after dysentery. Tenesmus. Urine sedimentitious; black. Nephritis. Chest seems squeezed by a band. Cutting or stinging at heart. Weak heart. Cold limbs. Heat on rump. Sweat, cold on face; sour at night.

Complementary: Ars. Spi.

Related: Ars. Carb-v. Ver-a.

Adapted to the rheumatic, gouty diathesis; persons of robust vigorous constitution; diseases of old people. External impressions, light, noise, strong odors, contact, bad manners, make him almost beside himself (Nux); his sufferings seem intolerable. Ailments: from grief or misdeeds of others (Staph.). Pains are drawing, tearing, pressing; light or superficial during warm weather; affect the bones and deeper tissues, when air is cold; pains go from left to right (Lach.). Smell painfully acute; nausea and faintness from the odor of cooking food, especially fish, eggs or fat meat (Ars., Sep.); bad effects from night watching (Coc.). Aversion to food; loathing even the sight of still more the smell of it. The abdomen is immensely distended with gas, feeling as if it would burst. Burning, or icy coldness in stomach and abdomen. Autumnal dysentery, discharges from bowels contain white shreddy particles in large quantities; white mucus; "scrapings of intestines" (Canth., Carb. ac.). Urine: dark, scanty or suppressed; in drops, with white sediment; bloody, brown, black, inky; contains clots of putrid decomposed blood, albumin, sugar. Affected parts very sensitive to contact and motion. Arthiritic pains in joints; patient scremas with pain on touching a joint or stubbing a toe.

Compare: Bry. in rheumatic gout with serous effusions; in rheumatism in warm weather. Often cures in dropsy after Apis and Ars. fail.

Mental emotion or exhaustion; effects of hard study; odor of cooking food. Motion: if the patient lies perfectly still, the disposition to vomit is less urgent. Every motion renew it (Bry.).

This remedy is to be thought of when we see a patient suffering from the effects of night watching; from the effects of hard study.

Rheumatism; chronic rheumatism; rheumatic gout; dysentery occurring in the fall of the year. Arthritic pains in the joints, especially when knocking the joints, makes the patient scream with pain, or when stubbing the toes hurts exceedingly. Affects largely the periosteum and synovial membranes of joints; small joints. Redness, heat, and swelling of parts affected. Tearing pains worse in the evening and at night.

Urine dark, scanty.

Dropsy of outer parts. Tingling in outer and inner parts. Dryness of the skin, particularly when accompanied by dark and scanty urine. Tingling itching. Want of perspiration.

In the evening; in the night; while drawing breath; during expiration; on moving; from touching the parts; during walking.

After evacuation, as in dysentery, there is generally relief (but in typhus fever, e.g., sometimes a terrific spasmodic pain of the sphincter ani comes on after stool. This may occur in common diarrhœa.); while taking an inspiration; while reposing; when sitting; stooping.

Nux vom., Mercur., Pulsat., Rhus tox., Sepia.

Nux vom., Pulsat.

Articular rheumatism; shifting from one point to another; great sensitiveness to touch; worse from motion; teasing pains, always worse at night. Metastasis of gout or rheumatism to internal organs, especially the heart, with severe cardiac pains; weaker heart action; thread-like. scarcely perceptible pulse; great oppression and dyspnoea. Dysentery, especially in gouty or rheumatic subjects, with stools of gelatinous or membranous mucus, or containing white, shreddy particles. Gastric disturbances, especially gastralgia, associated with gout or rheumatism or following suppressed gout, always nausea with disgust for food, the smell of food being especially repugnant. External impressions, such as bright light, strong colours, contact, misdeeds of others make him quite beside himself.

Meadow Saffron (COLCHICUM)

Affects markedly the muscular tissues, periosteum, and synovial membranes of joints. Has specific power of relieving the gouty paroxysms. It seems to be more beneficial in chronic affections of these parts. The parts are red, hot, swollen. Tearing pains; worse, in the evening and at night and from touch; stubbing the toes hurts exceedingly. There is always great prostration, internal coldness, and tendency to collapse. Effects of night watching and hard study. Shocks as from electricity through one half of body. Bad effects from suppressed sweat. Dreams of mice.

Headache chiefly frontal and temporal, but also occipital and in nape of neck, worse afternoon and evening.

Pupils unequal; left pupil contracted. Variations in visual acuity. Lachrymation worse in open air; violent tearing pain in eyes. Dim vision after reading. Spots before eyes.

Itching in ears; sharp, shooting pains below right tragus.

Pain in facial muscles, moving about. Tingling and œdematous swelling; cheeks red, hot, sweaty. Very irritable with the pains (Cham). Pain behind angle of right lower jaw.

Dry mouth, tongue burns, gums and teeth pain. Thirst; pain in stomach and flatulence. The smell of food causes nausea even to fainting, especially fish. Profuse salivary secretion. Vomiting of mucus, bile and food; worse, any motion; great coldness in stomach. Craving for various things, but is averse to then when smelling them, seized them with nausea. Gouty gastralgia. Burning or icy coldness in stomach and abdomen. Thirst for effervescent, alcoholic beverages. Pain in transverse colon.

Distention of abdomen, with gas, inability to stretch out legs. Borborygmi. Pain over liver. Cæcum and ascending colon much distended. Fullness and continuous rumbling. Ascites.

Painful, scanty, transparent, jelly-like mucus; pain, as if anus were torn open, with prolapse. Autumnal dysentery; stools contain while shreddy particles in large quantities. Ineffectual pressing; feels feces in rectum, but cannot expel them.

Pruritus of genitals. Cold feeling in thigh after period. Sensation of swelling in vulva and clitoris.

Dark, scanty or suppressed; bloody, brown, black, inky; contains clots of putrid decomposed blood, albumin, sugar.

Anxiety in region of heart. Impulse not felt. Pericarditis, with severe pain, oppression and dyspnœa, pulse threadlike. Sound of heart become weaker, pulse of low tension.

Sharp pain down left arm. Tearing in limbs during warm weather, stinging during cold. Pins and needles in hands and wrists, fingertips numb. Pain in front of thigh. Right plantar reflex abolished. Limbs, lame, weak, tingling. Pain worse in evening and warm weather. Joints stiff and feverish; shifting rheumatism; pains worse at night. Inflammation of great toe, gout in heel, cannot bear to have it touched or moved. Tingling in the finger nails. Knees strike together, can hardly walk. Œdematous swelling and coldness of legs and feet.

Aching in lumbar and lumbo-sacral region. Dull pain across loins. Backache, better, rest and pressure.

Blotchy papular rash on face. Pink spots on back, chest and abdomen. Urticaria.

Worse, sundown to sunrise; motion, loss of sleep, smell of food in evening, mental exertion. Better, stooping.

Antidotes: Thuja; Camph; Coccul; Nux; Puls.

Compare: Colchicine (intestinal catarrh with shreddy membranes; convulsive jerkings of right hand; rheumatic fever, gout, endo and pericarditis, pleurisy, arthritis, deformans in early stages; intense pain of rheumatism 3x trit). Also, Carbo; Arnica; Lilium; Arsen; Verat.

Third to thirtieth attenuation.

The smell of food cooking nauseates to faintness.

Fall dysenteries when the days are warm and nights cold; stools shreddy and bloody, like scrapings.

Swelling of joints moving from one place to another; they are often dropsical and pit on pressure; < in extremes of wet and cold, or warm and dry (Kent).

This remedy has one of the most positive and reliable characteristic symptoms in the whole Materia Medica, and one which cannot be accounted for from any pathological standpoint that I know of. I mention this here because there is a seeming desire on the part of some to base all their prescriptions on pathological indications. I have no objections to their doing so if they can and succeed in curing their patients. But I claim full recognition for the value of those subjective, sensational symptoms and the modalities which cannot be accounted for. Indeed, I feel quite sure that the well-verified subjective symptoms are oftener to be relied upon in curing our patients than all the pathological conditions we know. Now for the symptom. "The smell of food cooking nauseates to faintness." To illustrate the value of this symptom I will give a case of my own practice; it was also my first experience with a potency as high as the 200th. Patient was a lady, seventy-five years of age, who was suddenly seized with sickness at the stomach and vomiting of blood in large quantities; then bloody stools followed, which were at first profuse, then became small and of bloody mucus. There was great tenesmus and pain in the bowels. Aconite, Mercurius, Nux vomica, Ipecacuanha, Hamamelis and Sulphur, all tried as well as I knew how to select them at that time, but no relief came, and at the end of twelve days my patient was rapidly going down and it looked to me as though she must die. She had become so weak that she could not lift her head from the pillow. By actual count the number of stools passed on cloths in the bed was sixty-five, in twenty-four hours, the pains, number of passages and an symptoms were aggravated from; sundown to sunrise (this is another characteristic of Colchicum).

Now during ad this sickness this patient had been so nauseated and faint at the smell of cooking food that they had been obliged to keep the doors closed between her bedroom and the kitchen, which was two large rooms away. I was not so well acquainted with Materia Medica then as now, and while I did not overlook the symptom did not know of any remedy that had it. But I had my Lippe text-book of Materia Medica in my carriage and I went out and got it and sat down by the bedside; determined to find that peculiar and persistent symptom and "fight it out on that line if it tom all summer" I began at Aconite and looked at the stomach symptoms of every remedy, until, the first time I remembered ever having noticed it there it stood in plain English under Colchicum. Then I looked in my medicine case for the remedy. None there, and I was four miles from home. I had a box of Dunham's 200ths under my carriage seat that had been there for over a year, but which I had never used for want of confidence in high potencies. It was the best I could do for the present, so I dissolved a few pellets in a half-glass of cold water, and directed to give one teaspoonful after every passage of the bowels. On my way home I stopped my horse two or three times to turn around and go back and give that poor suffering woman some medicine. I felt guilty, but I said to myself this is Lippe's Materia Medica, and these are Carroll Dunham's potencies, and here is a clean cut indication for its administration, and the other symptoms do not counter-indicate. Well, I got home. But I started early the next morning to try and make amends for my rashness (if the patient was not dead) of yesterday. Imagine my surprise as I stepped into the sick-room when my patient slowly turned her head upon the pillow and said, with a smile, "Good morning, Doctor." I had been met with a groan several past mornings. I felt faint myself then. I dropped into a chair by the bedside and remarked, "You are feeling better." "Oh, yes Doctor." "How much of that last medicine did you take?" "Two doses." "What!" "Two doses; I only had two more stools after you left." "Don't you have any more pain?" "Pain stopped like that" (putting her hands together) "and I feel well except weakness." She took no more medicine, quickly recovered, and was perfectly well for five years after, and finally died at eighty years of age. I never got over that surprise. Convinced against my will, but not of the same opinion still.

Now I fell to experimenting with the 200th in down-right earnest. I have cured many cases since of autumnal dysentery with this remedy on the same indication, and with the same potency. I have also cured a very severe case of typhlitis (now called appendicitis, for which they so often operate with more deaths than were ever known before the operation became popular) on the same symptom, which was markedly present in the case. Bright's disease, a bad case, was also cured by it. Rheumatism, gout and dropsies have been cured, this symptom being present, and so I have been at length in giving my experience with this remedy in order to prove three things:

1st. That we should not be influenced by prejudice.

2d. That subjective symptoms are most valuable.

3d. That the 200ths do act and cure.

Of course, there are other valuable symptoms besides the one upon which we have laid such particular stress. For instance, Colchicum has two symptoms that are opposite one to the other, viz.: Violent burning and icy coldness in the stomach. These opposites are often found in the abdomen. Again, it is sometimes indicated in autumnal dysentery, the white or bloody mucous discharges having a shreddy appearance, looking as if the mucous membrane had been scraped off the intestines, with great tenesmus. Cantharis has these stools, looking like scrapings, as prominently as Colchicum, but with Cantharis the pain and tenesmus implicate the urinary organs at the same time. Colocynth also has such stools, but the doubling-up, colicky pains distinguish it from both the others. Colchicum has great meteoritic distention of the abdomen. It is in the 200th potency a good remedy for the bloating of cows that have eaten too much green clover. In dyspepsia, when there is complaint of burning or sensation of coldness in the stomach, and much gas in stomach or abdomen, or both, Colchicum is excellent, taking sometimes preference over Carbo vegetabilis, China or Lycopodium.

Colchicum is always set down in the text-books for rheumatism, articular, migrating and gouty, and I have often tried it, but never with anything like the success of our other rheumatic remedies. I have been greatly disappointed in it here. Perhaps I did not use it low enough. It is also said to be a good remedy for weakness or sudden prostration, but here I have no personal experience with it. However, if in any of these troubles, or others, I should find its prime characteristic present I should certainly give it and confidently expect good results.

Peevish ; dissatisfied with every thing. His sufferings seem intolerable to him. Slight causes, external impressions (bright light, strong smells, contact, bad manners) disturb his temper at once. Great desire for rest and disinclination to every mental exertion ; forgetfulness ; absence of mind.

Giddiness when sitting down after walking. Sensation of constriction over the eyes. Pulsations in the head. Pressing pain in the occiput, from mental exertion. The headache is relieved, after supper, from warmth and lying quiet in bed.

Watering of the eyes in the open air. Ulceration of the meibomian glands (left lower lid), with swelling of the eyelids. Burning and redness of the edges of the eyelids.

Discharge from the ears, with tearing in the ears (after measles). Stitches in the ears (evening). Dryness of the ears.

Fluent coryza, with thin, tenacious discharge from the nose. Tingling in the nose. The sense of smell is painfully acute. Bleeding of the nose in the evenings.

Piteous, sad features, as if he were ill. Very great paleness of the face. Cheeks red and hot (afternoon). Œdematous swelling of the face.

Increased secretions of saliva ; profuse ptyalism, with dryness of the throat. Sensation of warmth and dryness in the mouth. Lips chapped. The tongue is heavy, stiff, and insensible. Tongue coated white. Smarting and sensation of dryness of the tongue and throat. Biting-tingling in the throat and fauces. Frequent hawking of (greenish) mucus. Inflammation and redness of the palate, of the fauces.

Aversion to food, and loathing when merely looking at it, and still more when smelling it ; the smell of broth nauseates, and that of fish, eggs, or fat meat almost makes him faint. Taste bitter ; violent thirst.

Constant singultus. Nausea, in an erect position, when moving, at table, with inclination to vomit, with constant flow of saliva. Vomiting of bile or mucus, of the ingesta, with trembling violent gagging, colic, succeeded by bitterness in the mouth and throat. Every motion excites or renews the vomiting. Sensitiveness of the region of the stomach ; it does not bear contact. The stomach feels icy cold. Burning in the stomach, with heavy pain. Sensation of gnawing hunger in the stomach. Abdominal dropsy, with a fold over the pubic region. Stitches in the pit of the stomach. Pulsation in the abdomen.

Stool scanty, discharged only by hard straining even of the soft stool, with pain in the small of the back. Extremely painful stools. Watery discharges, going off without sensation. Ineffectual pressing to stool ; he feels the fæces in the rectum, but cannot expel them. Frequent evacuations of transparent, jelly-like mucus, relieving the colic. Fall dysentery, with discharges of white mucus and violent tenesmus ; bloody stools, mingled with a slimy substance. During stool sensation as if the sphincter ani were torn to pieces ; burning at the anus. Prolapsus ani ; spasms in the sphincter ani.

Frequent micturition. Whitish sediment in the urine. Burning in the urinary organs, with diminished secretion. Brown, black urine.

Men. Itching at the prepuce and orifice of the urethra. Tearing in the glands and left spermatic cord. Women. Catamenia too early.

Hoarseness in the morning, with roughness of the throat. Nightly cough, with involuntary discharge of urine. Oppression of the chest, with anxiety ; relieved by bending forward. Frequent pressure in small spots in the chest. Pressure and oppression in the region of the heart, as if an attack of apoplexy threatened ; relieved by walking. Lancinating pain or cutting, as with a knife, in the right side of the chest. Hydrothorax.

Tearing and lancinations in the back. Soreness in the small of the back when touching it. Drawing in the small of the back ; worse during motion.

Upper. Stitches in the right shoulder. Painful lameness in the arms, which makes it impossible to hold the lightest thing. Trembling of the right hand, preventing writing. Bubbling sensation in the left upper arm. Rheumatic pain in the arms, extending into the fingers, especially the joints of the fingers. Heat of the palms of the hands. Fingers cold ; tingling in the tips of the fingers. Lower. Rheumatic pains in the legs, extending to the toes. Œdematous swelling of the legs and feet. The feet feel heavy. Tingling in the tips of the toes.

Great weakness, with sensation of lameness through all the limbs. Tearing twitches, like electric shocks, through one side of the body, with sensation of lameness. Frequent starting. Tingling in many parts of the body, as if frost-bitten, when the weather changes.

Irresistible sleepiness, drowsiness. Sleeplessness, without entire consciousness. Sleeplessness because he cannot lie on the left side, which he is accustomed to go to sleep.

Pulse hard, full, and accelerated. Coldness and chilliness, running through all the limbs. Frequent shiverings down the back. External dry heat of the skin. At night dry, external heat, with excessive thirst. Perspiration wanting or suppressed.

Œdematous swelling and anasarca. Suppressed perspiration.

Rheumatic pains in the limbs during warm weather ; at in the limbs during cold weather. The pains increase towards evenings, and do not diminish before daybreak. Sensitiveness of the body, especially of the affected to motion and contact. Aggravation while walking. Amelioration while reposing, sitting (when stooping).

Colchicum autumnale. Meadow Saffron. N. O. Melanthaceæ of the Liliaceæ. Tincture of the bulb dug in spring.

Appendicitis. Asthma. Cataract . Cholera. Colic. Cough. Cramp . Debility. Diabetes. Diarrhœa . Dropsy. Dysentery. Eye, affections of. Feels, painful. Gout . Heart affections of. Ileus. Intermittent fever. Intestinal catarrh. Lumbago. Myalgia . Nephritis (rheumatic and gouty). Pericarditis. Proctalgia. Prostatitis . Rectum, prolapse of. Rheumatism. Stiff-neck . Tongue, sensibility lost. Typhlitis. Typhoid fever.

Colchicum is best known as a remedy in gout and rheumatism, and the provings show its specific relation thereto. It acts on muscles, bones, and joints. It causes extreme relaxation of the muscular system — the head falls forward on the chest; or falls back when the patient is raised from the pillow; arms fall helpless by the side. Stitching, jerking, drawing pains in muscles; periosteum, and joints. Extreme disinclination to move; < from motion. Mind befogged; but answers correctly. Absence of apprehension, no fear of death. Results of getting wet and Letting chilled; changes to damp weather; autumn dysentery, spring rheumatism. (The flowers of the plant appear in autumn; the leaves not till the following spring.) It corresponds to the gouty constitution; leuco-phlegmatic and melancholic temperament; venous constitutions; uric acid diathesis, the sediment being pale yellow and rather like fine flour than sand. Also, urine black as ink; urine loaded with albumen and casts. There is the irritability and aversion to touch so common in gout; pain in small joints, and especially the great toes. The stomach is acutely disordered, nausea and vomiting. "Nausea at thought, sight, or smell of food, especially of cooking," is a characteristic symptom. (Nash records a striking cure by Colch . 200, to which he was led by this symptom. The patient was an old lady who was vomiting blood, and passing as many as sixteen bloody stools in the day. The doors of the room had to be most carefully kept closed to prevent any smell of cooking reaching her as that immediately provoked nausea.) Sensation of icy coldness in stomach; or burning. Coldness is a common symptom: abdomen; stomach; extremities. Profuse cold sweat; marked chills with or without periodicity. Burning also is not uncommon: in cavities, especially abdomen. The characteristic stool of Colchicum is jelly-like mucus; membranous shreds being also marked; violent tenesmus accompanies. Protrusion of rectum. "After evacuation, as in dysentery, there is generally relief (but in typhus fever, e.g ., sometimes a terrific spasmodic pain of the sphincter ani comes on after stool. This may occur in common diarrhœa)" (Guernsey). The rice-water stool, hippocratic face, coldness, cramps, prostration, led Salzer to find in it the specific for certain epidemics of Asiatic cholera. All functions, mental and bodily, are slow; nutrition and digestion are at a stand, and yet the patient does not emaciate rapidly. There is great prostration; debility from loss of sleep; the prostration of typhoid fever and typhoid states. On the other hand there are convulsions, cramps, and sometimes restlessness. The pains of Colchicum are very acute and unendurable. The Colch . dysentery and rheumatism are exceedingly painful. Very sensitive and irritable. Cannot endure strong smells. Gouty diabetes, the uric acid reappearing as the sugar disappears. The heart is affected as other muscles. Oppression and anxiety > by walking. Heart-beating. Stitches about heart and loss of consciousness. Heart affected (pericarditis) on disappearance of symptoms from extremities; rheumatism appears on disappearance of uric acid from urine. Colch . will reverse this. J. R. Simson, of Tonawanda, N. Y., cured a very bad rase of typhoid presenting among other symptoms, this: "his left pupil was contracted so as to be almost imperceptible, while the right was dilated to the full extent." This is peculiar to Colch ., and no remedy relieved the patient till he received this. B. Simmons calls attention ( H. P ., August, 1889) to the powerlessness of the affected parts which accompanies many Colchicum affections, especially when occurring in leuco-phlegmatic subjects and when there is œdematous swelling of the parts. He cured a woman, 36, mother of two children, of leuco-phlegmatic temperament, who complained of rheumatism of the hands, which were swollen; joints stiff and powerless, pain as if bruised; the arms being affected but in less degree. "She was unable to brush her own hair, not so much from the pain as from the extreme weakness and powerlessness of the parts affected." T. F. Allen gives "Tingling in finger-nails" as characteristic of Colch .; no other remedy has it. As usual with allopathic specifics, Colchicum has been terribly abused. Here is an instance. I was called suddenly to see an old gentleman of 72, whom I found in a state of collapse, pallid, surface was cold and clammy, almost pulseless. He had been taken suddenly ill when in the water-closet, vomiting "black bile," and had fallen on the floor when trying to walk along the passage. The history of the attack was this: He had formerly been "a martyr to gout." Four years previously he began to take, on lay recommendation, a powder which analysis showed to be composed of equal parts of Colchicum and Jesuit's bark. He kept this up for six months and had no more gout. But at the end of the six months he had the first attack of this kind. It came quite suddenly and was, as far as I could learn, identical with the one in which I saw him. In addition to the symptoms named there was looseness of the bowels, the stool being black like the vomit. He was compelled to lie absolutely still, the least attempt to raise the head exciting nausea. Recovery took place in a few days. This is not exactly a case of what our friends would call " médecine substitutive ," but I am inclined to name it " maladie substitutive ," the substituted malady, Colchicism , being considerably worse than the gout it replaced. These attacks had recurred every few months, although the powders were discontinued. The < from motion is as marked as that of Bry . The patient must rest and lie down. Cannot lie on left side. < From any exertion mental or bodily. Bending forward > oppression and colic. Symptoms are < night and evening. Warmth > generally; but warm food < toothache; and damp, warm weather = profuse watery stools; warm stove or warm room = chilliness. Symptoms generally are < from cold or damp; from getting wet; from bathing, living in damp dwellings; change to damp weather; from change of weather; also complaints from getting overheated. Pains in gout go from left to right; headaches right to left. Complaints of old people; asthmatic people.

Continue in Clarke 25 more passages →

Perception entirely lost ; unconscious. θ Typhus. θ Myelitis
acuta.
Memory weakened, ideas not so clear as usual ; forgetfulness ; absence of mind.
Disorders in comprehension and association of ideas ; he lacks words to express his ideas ; when writing, he forgets syllables and entire words ; he confounds objects.
Confusion of head ; intellect clouded, though he answers correctly.
Says nothing unless questioned, his condition does not seem to him dangerous. θ Typhus.
Can read, but cannot understand even a short sentence ; cannot understand the words ; vision is heightened, but intellectual faculties dulled.
Delirium with headache.
Great desire for rest, and disinclination to mental exertion, or exertion of any kind.
Mind depressed. θ Dropsy. θ Gout.
Surly, ill-humored, not satisfied with anything.
His sufferings seem intolerable to him ; external impressions, light, noise, strong smells, contact, etc., disturb his temper.
Pains so excessive they almost drive one mad, in the evening.
Aggravation very often, after mental exertion.
Pains < by mental exertion or by motion.
Ailments from grief or misbehavior of others.

Confusion and drowsiness of the head.
Vertigo : while sitting, after walking ; on rising.
Delirium, with headache.
Coma, or unconsciousness.

Pressive heaviness deep in cerebellum, especially on moving or stooping.
Pressing pain above, in small spots, or very severely in substance of cerebellum, and occurring on the slightest intellectual exertion.
Pressure in head ; especially in occiput, also deep in cerebellum, excited by mental exertion, or night watching.
Boring, pressing headache, brought on by mental labor, and by entering room from open air.
Sensation of constriction in ciliary region, with great desire for rest, and disinclination to mental exertion. θ Iritis.
Spasmodic pains in head, especially over eyes.
Boring headache, especially over eyes, extending into dorsum of nose.
Headache over left eye, < in open air.
Painful rending, tearing, drawing pains in left side of head, from eyeball to occiput.
Very painful drawing-tearing in half of head, beginning at ball of eye, extending to occiput.
Hemicrania, either of right or left side, changing about.
Pressing pain in right and afterwards in left frontal region.
Tearing, wandering pains, in one half of head, in occiput, in temples, or pericranium.
Creeping sensation in forehead.
Pressing-tearing in occiput.
Oppressive weight in occiput, during movement and when bending the body backward.
Pressing headache. θ Dropsy.
Pulsations in head.
Very violent headache, coming in evening, and lasting until morning.
Headache > after supper, from warmth and lying quiet in bed.

Heaviness of head.
Head bent forward upon breast, arms hang listless.
When raised the head falls back, mouth wide open.
Extreme weakness, cannot move her head from pillow without help. θ Hemorrhage from bowels.
Difficulty in moving head.
Hot forehead. θ Dropsy.
Forehead covered with cold sweat. θ Typhus.
Tearing in scalp, on small spots, particularly on occiput.
Lacerating pain in scalp.
Great falling off of the hair.
Porrigo favosa, oozing acrid ichor.

Continue in Hering 43 more passages →

It is rather singular that traditional medicine used Colchicum so much for gout. In all the old books it was recommended for this malady. The provings corroborate the fact that Colchicum fits into many conditions of gout.

Acute rheumatism and uric acid diathesis; rheumatic complaints in general, with swelling and without swelling. But traditional medicine does not tell us what kind of gout to give it in or what kind of rheumatism.

It was really the medicine of experience. "if it is gout, try Colchicum."

The question of what was to be done with the patient when the remedy failed never came up.

It was

"Give the prescription and keep at it," and drugs were administered until the patient, steadily growing worse, passed from one doctor's hands, to another's. It is true that Colchicum fits into the gouty state. Spells of cold, wet weather will slack up the flow of urine, make it scanty, or decrease the quantity of solids in the urine.

This takes place in the provings of Colchicum and has been verified many times. It is well known that such a condition will bring about or intensify the gouty state. If the solids in the twine are deficient, if they are not carried off in the urine, something must happen, and the gouty state comes on.

Colchicum is aggravated by cold, damp weather; by the cold rains in the Fall. It is aggravated by anything that will debilitate. It is aggravated in the extreme heat of summer; it has a summer rheumatism; the heat will slack up the flow of urine or the quantity of solids in the urine.

A striking feature running through the remedy is its tendency to move from one joint to another, from one side to another, from below upwards, or from above downwards. Rheumatic conditions with swelling, or without swelling; first here, next there, changing about from place to place.

Another striking feature is the general dropsical condition. When the hands and feet swell, and there is pitting on pressure. Dropsy of the abdominal cavity, of the pericardium; of the pleura and dropsy of serous sacs. Swellings that are inflammatory and rheumatic; swellings that are dropsical, with pale urine. Whether copious or scanty, still it is pale.

Muscular rheumatism and rheumatism of the white fibrous tissues of the joints. Rheumatic troubles that have been going on for some time, will end in cardiac troubles. When cardiac troubles with valvular defects are present, almost the first thing the busy doctor thinks of is a history of rheumatism.

Let me say that a part of the study of Materia Medica consists in the observation of sick people. A busy physician learns without books, though of course he should familiarize himself with the literature, so that from reading, as well as observation, he may acquire a knowledge of the general nature of sickness.

When he listens to the patient's story or makes a physical examination, he knows how such cases usually conduct themselves. He knows what to expect. He knows the natural trend of sickness and instantly recognizes what is strange and unusual. He will not recognize what is strange and unusual unless he knows what is natural.

So your books on symptomatology and pathology, diagnosis, etc., will tell you much of this, but as you gain experience in homeopathic practice you will get a much finer idea of this because your Materia Medica teaches you to observe more closely.

The Materia Medica man learns to single out and trace every little thing in order to individualize. So it may be said that years of observation in studying disease, studying the sick man along with the Materia Medica, will open to the mind a much grander knowledge of the sicknesses of humanity than can be had by practicing traditional medicine. Traditional medicine benumbs the ability to observe.

All the complaints of this remedy are aggravated from motion. The painful complaints, the head complaints, the bowel complaints. the liver complaints, the stomach complaints, are all worse from motion. Such an aggravation from motion that he dreads to move. About as marked as we find in Bryonia.

Aversion to motion, and aggravation from motion. Aggravation from becoming cold and in cold, damp weather. He is a chilly patient, sensitive to cold. Most rheumatic patients are sensitive to cold, but there are a few exceptions. There is no greater rheumatic patient than the Ledum patient. He presents, both sides. Though he is cold, his pains are ameliorated by cold. In Colchicum the pains are ameliorated by heat, by wrapping up, by being warm.

If he moves, any suffering that he may have will be intensified. Great prostration accompanies the complaints of this remedy. Weakness of the limbs, great exhaustion, nervous exhaustion of a typhoid character. He gradually grows weaker like one going into Bright's disease. He has grown weak for some time, and he is pallid and waxy.

His hands and feet pit upon pressure. Examine the urine and you will find albumen in it. The urine becomes black like ink with albumen. There is an unusual degree of irritability of the tissues, soreness, sensitiveness to touch, sensitiveness to motion; bruised feeling of the joints and of the whole body.

Touch and motion bring on a painful sensation in the body as of. electric vibrations. Great weakness and exhaustion. He cannot exert himself in the least without causing dyspnea, Must lie down; does not want to move; sinking of strength; seems as if his life will flow out of him from motion and from exertion; so tired and exhausted.

This naturally occurs when going towards Bright's disease, when going towards a continued fever. Kidney affections and liver affections. Lassitude, prostration, anxiety. The muscles twitch and electric shocks pass through the body. A paralytic weakness was observed in the poisonous effects and too prolonged provings. The jaw hangs down, the muscles are flabby, relaxed. He lies on the back as if sinking; slides down in bed like one in typhoid, in low forms of rheumatic and in continued fevers, so great is the exhaustion. Paralysis of the limbs or of one limb, or of any part.

The Colchicum patient is almost constantly sweating, even with fever, and sometimes the sweat is cold. A draft blows upon him, suppresses that sweat and the paralytic condition of the limbs comes on; suppression of urine and retention of urine. This describes the profound character and type of sickness. Low forms of sickness; prostrating sickness; sickness with nervous trembling; with great exhaustion. After acute disease has passed away, great weakness and dropsy follows. Dropsy after scarlet fever.

With all these troubles, the stomach and the bowel symptoms are very decided. This is like Cocculus. Absolutely unable to touch food. Nausea, gagging, retching at the bare mention of food in his presence. The thought and smell of food bring on nausea and vomiting. With all these low forms of disease, these states described, we can see that this kind of weakness is little different from the Cocculus weakness.

Colchicum has delirium, prostration, depression of mind, great sensitiveness to pain, which he seems to feel in his mind, and it brings out mental symptoms. Very sensitive to pain; confusion of the mind; disorders of comprehension. Cannot understand what he reads. The headaches are all of a rheumatic character. Very often the whole skull, the pericranium, is sore as if bruised. The scalp is sensitive. Pressure in the head-constriction; pressing, bursting headaches. Heat in the head. Tearing in the scalp. Headaches are all aggravated by motion.

The eye symptoms are of a rheumatic character, are connected with rheumatism, rheumatic fever. It is not very uncommon to have iritis in connection with rheumatic fever and it is a strong feature of Colchicum. Ulcers of the lids, styes, much lachrymation in the open air. The tears excoriate and cause redness of the lids.

He takes cold easily. Sneezing, stuffing up of the nostrils. Nosebleed in rheumatic and gouty constitutions. But there is one feature that is more marked in Colchicum than all others. He is so sensitive to odors that he smells things which others do not smell. He smells odors from which he is nauseated.

"Strong odors make him quite beside himself."

You say "soup" or "broth," or something to eat, and he gets sick.

He can smell the things in the kitchen, in spite of much precaution, and this runs through the remedy. In typhoid fever, prostrated beyond the usual and typhoid is always prostrated enough, he is unusually prostrated. He cannot take milk, cannot take raw eggs, cannot take soup, because he gags at the mere thought of them.

He has gone on for days, and his family are afraid that he is going to starve to death. That aggravation from odors is so strong with him that it seems to take possession of him. It involves his appetite, his weakness, his stomach.

So it does seem that it is a strong feature. Notice that this is one of his loves; it is a perverted love, and the loves are general whether they are manifested through the eyes, nose or touch. It enters into his very life because it involves hatred to odor, and when it stands out in low forms of disease like the continued fevers, the exhaustive fevers and rheumatic complaints it becomes a general. It would be a particular if it were something that applied to the things alone, but you see it enters into the very innermost.

Involves a hatred, becomes mental, becomes a part of the man. He himself may be said to hate odors, hate the smell of food and the thought of it. Do not say "food" in the presence of a Colchicum patient, but give him Colchicum first, and pretty soon he will want something to eat. It removes that hatred for food. What a vital thing it must be when a man hates that which will keep him alive.

The teeth are very sensitive.

"Rheumatic teeth."

The gums settle away; after a while the teeth become loose. Pain in the teeth; rheumatic condition of the jaws and the teeth.

"Grinding of the teeth, teeth sensitive when pressed together."

"Aversion to food; loathing the sight and smell," more the smell of it.

"The smell of fish, eggs, fat meats or broths causes nausea even unto faintness."

The Colchicum patient may have much thirst or no thirst, or these may alternate. Nausea and vomiting are very strong features,

"Nausea and inclination to vomit, caused by swallowing saliva,

Nausea, eructations and copious, vomiting of mucus and bile.

Violent retching followed by copious and forcible vomiting of food, and then of bile."

In the stomach there is sometimes coldness and sometimes burning. Now it may be that the Colchicum patient has both coldness and burning. They are both recorded in the Repertory and in the provings, but it is sometimes difficult to tell which is which, more difficult than you will imagine unless you try a piece of ice somewhere and something very hot.

"Burning 'in the pit of the stomach."

Coldness in the stomach. Now the abdomen furnishes us still more to observe. The abdomen is distended with flatus, tympanitic.

Great soreness in the whole abdomen just such a tympanitic condition as we have in typhoid.

If you ever happen to be in the country practicing, medicine, and the farmer's cows get into a fresh clover patch and eat themselves full and become distended so that you are afraid they are going to explode offer your services and give each one of those cows a few pellets of Colchicum.

It will be but a few minutes before the wind will get out of there to your surprise and the farmer's, too; and you may convert him to Homoeopathy. Farmers have been known to put a butcher knife into the pouch of the cow between the last short ribs to let the wind out.

The cow will get well, but Colchicum is better than the butcher's knife. The same is true of the horse; in fact, of man or beast, When the abdomen is violently distended and tympanitic, Colchicum is often a suitable remedy.

Spasmodic pains, colic, tearing pains, burning, griping pains, forcing the patient to bend double. Aggravated from motion. Great tenderness and soreness with the colic. Aggravated from eating; ameliorated from bending double. And then comes the diarrhoea. It has just such a diarrhea as is found in low forms of fever. Dysenteric or diarrheic stools that are jelly like.

They form in the pan a solid mass of jelly like, coagulated mucus. Very painful, extremely painful is the Colchicum stool. Great soreness in the abdomen. Great relaxation of the parts. Protrusion of the rectum. Putrid, dark, bloody mucus.

"Bloody discharges from the bowels, with deathly nausea."

Fall dysentery, with discharges. of white mucus and violent tenesmus. Putrid, dark, clotted blood and mucus pass from the bowels. Diarrhoea with violent, colicky pains. Bloody stools with scrapings from the intestines and, protrusion of anus.

Profuse, watery stools in hot, damp weather or in the Autumn. Watery, jellylike mucus passes from anus with violent spasm in sphincter. It passes as a thin, watery flow; but as. soon as it cools, it forms a jelly.

The urine burns when it passes. It is attended with much pain. Inflammation of the kidneys, inflammation of the bladder; tenesmus; retention of urine.

The kidneys manufacture no urine; scanty urine with dropsy. The urine is inky, that is, very dark brown and sometimes almost black, loaded with albumen. This remedy conforms principally to the acute form of Bright's disease.

Great dyspnoea, rapid, short breathing; the heart's impulse strong. Respiration accelerated.

The heart's impulse can be heard all over the room. Palpitation; oppression of the chest. Feels as if he had a great weight on the chest; cannot breathe. Hydrothorax; the pleural cavities distended with serum, causing the dyspnea.

"Heart's action muffled, indistinct, very weak."

Stinging, tearing pains in the muscles of the chest.

Paralytic pains in the arms; enlarged finger joints. This also tells what a low form of sickness, what a feeble circulation this medicine brings about.

"Weakness so that he strikes the knees together while walking; pain all over as if bruised.

Swelling of the joints."

The joints are most affected.

Muscular rhumatism.

Numbness, oedema, swelling of the limbs.

Adapted to the rheumatic, gouty diathesis; persons of a robust vigorous constitution. Old people's diseases.

External impressions, such as bright light, strong odors, contact, grief, misdeeds of others, make him quite beside himself (Nux, Staph.).

Pains are drawing, tearing, pressing; superficial during warm weather; affect the bones and deeper tissues when air is cold. From left to right.

Smell very acute; the odor of cooking food causes nausea (Ars., Sep.).

Aversion to food; loathing even the sight or still more the smell of it.

The abdomen is immensely distended with gas, feeling as if it would burst.

Burning or icy coldness in stomach and abdomen.

Autumnal dysentery, discharges from bowels contain white shreddy particles in large quantities. "Scrapings of intestines" (Canth., Carb. ac.).

Affected parts very sensitive to motion and contact.

At night; mental emotion or exertion.

Motion: if the patient lie perfectly still the disposition to vomit is less urgent. Every motion renews it (Bry.).

Not marked. Epidemic or autumnal fevers, intermittent and remittent.

Low fevers following epidemic dysentery.

Hour not marked.

Thirst for cold water; drinking is followed by coldness in stomach and beginning of chill.

And shivering, running down the back, through the limbs; even in a warm room. Nose, cheeks and extremities cold. Chilly shivering in stomach and abdomen. Coldness in evening > by warm covering, but returning on going to bed as a chilliness, with chattering of the teeth, disappearing after a short time while lying still; it threatened to return on motion.

External dry heat the whole night, with violent, unquenchable thirst. Internal with attacks of flushes of heat, or short flushes of heat intermingled with chilliness, even near the warm stove. Great heat of the face, of the hands and feet.

Wanting or suppressed; or profuse, easily produced; sour-smelling sweat.

Heavy, stiff, insensible; bright red; covered with a downy white fur (milky white coating, Ant. c.). Desire for, or aversion to food, with loathing when merely looking at it, and still more when smelling it; the smell of broth nauseates, and that of fish, eggs, or fat meat, almost makes him faint.

Nausea with great restlessness; on assuming the upright position, great inclination to vomit.

Never clear. The gastric symptoms which come to the surface during this stage are usually characteristic.

In Colchicum we frequently find the genus epidemicus for the intermittents so often met with late in autumn, when epidemic dysentery prevails. The gastric and abdominal symptoms are guiding; especially sensitive to odor of food.

A CASE.—In the autumn of 1866, L. C., æt. 30, was attacked with ague of the quotidian type. The case lasted some eighteen days, a chill every day, and every day alike. It began at 10 A. M. with violent thirst, intense headache, greatly aggravated by the slightest motion, so that the patient lay on his right side with his head almost down to his knees, and moved only when the distress was so intense he could not avoid it. Wanted to be covered, but no relief from the covering. Chill lasted about an hour, and was followed by intense heat lasting about two hours, with continuance of thirst and headache, when the sweat began, with immediate relief of all the symptoms. He received a single dose of Bryonia 200 The next day the chill returned and I got this additional symptom: he could not bear the sight or smell of food. This suggested Colchicum, but, careful not to spoil the case by too hasty prescriptions, I gave Sac. lac. I took time to study Colchicum. My attention being given almost wholly to the fever symptoms, I concluded

Colchicum did not cover the case, and gave Nat. 200, one dose. The chill returned the next day; but Hering says Natrum is a slow acting remedy, and I thought we must give it time. I waited four days with just the same chill every day. Soon it appeared that every day the chill began with a desire for cold water, immediately after swallowing which he begins to be cold in the stomach, the coldness at once becoming general. It is not nec- essary for me to mention the various remedies he received, as I floundered day after day trying to cure intermittent fever, with that symptom of the appetite prominent before me all the time. At length a friend called, and I asked him to go with me to see the case. He did so, and, making his ex- amination, took copious notes of the symptoms, till he struck that symptom of the appetite, when he whispered to me "Colchicum." "Yes," I said, "but that is the only symptom of it in the case." He finished his examina- tion, and we gave Sac. lac. The next morning my friend called at my office and said: "That is Colchicum or Cocculus; I am not sure which."

"Well," I said, "if you say Colchicum, here goes;" and putting a vial of

Fincke's 21 m. in my pocket, I went at once to see my patient. I found him in a chill, as usual. I gave him Sac. lac. in solution, once in two hours, and left a powder of Colchicum 21 m. to be taken as soon as the paroxysm was over. He never had another chill. Moral: Treat the patient, not the disease.—WM. A. HAWLEY, M. D.

Perception entirely lost, unconscious.
Memory weakened.
Can read, but cannot understand even a short sentence.
Intellect beclouded, though he gives correct answers.
Confusion of the head.
Indisposition for exertion of any kind.
Mood usually cheerful; or sad; rarely irritable.
External impressions such as bright light, strong odors, contact, misdeeds of others make him quite beside himself.
Surly, ill-humored, not satisfied with anything.
Pains worse by mental exertion or by emotions.

Vertigo: while sitting, after walking; on rising.

Boring headache, especially over the eyes.
Pressure in the head; especially in the occiput, also deep in cerebellum, excited by mental exertion.
Pressive heaviness deep in the cerebellum, especially on moving or stooping.
Painful rending in left side of head, from eyeball to occiput.
Creeping sensation in the forehead.

Tearing in the scalp, at small spots, particularly on the occiput.
When raised the head falls back, mouth opens wide.
Difficulty in moving the head.
Porrigo favosa, oozing acrid ichor.

Violent, sharp tearing pain in and around eyeball.
Drawing-digging pain deep in the orbit, like in sclerotitis.
Inflammation of the eyes, dimsightedness, watering of the eyes, white spot on the cornea.
Soft cataract.
Pupils much dilated, only slightly sensitive to light, or immovable and slightly dilated.
Eyes: half open; sunken, staring.
Pressure and biting in the canthi, with moderate lachrymation.

Hearing generally acute.
Roaring in the ears; they feel stopped up.
Earache with stitches in the ears.
Tingling of the ears, as after being frosted.
Discharge from ears, with tearing in them. θ After measles.

Smell morbidly acute; the odor of meat broth causes nausea, and that of fresh eggs nearly fainting.
Sore pain in the septum.
Nosebleed.
Sneezing, also with crawling sensation in the nose.
Long-lasting coryza; discharge thin, tenacious.
Nostrils dry and black.

Doleful, sad expression; sunken; risus sardonicus, cadaverous looking; pale; yellow spotted; cheeks red and hot; covered with sweat.
Œdematous swelling of the face.
Pain and swelling from a decayed tooth; tongue furred.
Tearing and tensive pains in the facial muscles, moving from one location to another.
Drawing in the bones of face or nose, sensation as if they were being rent as under.
Tingling in the skin of the face, as after being frosted.

Cracked lips.
Thick, brownish coating on lips, teeth and tongue.

Grinding of teeth.
Teeth very sensitive when pressing them together.
Teeth feel too long.
Toothache worse from cold; after warm things.
Tearing in the jaws and gums.

Tastelessness of food.
Loss of speech. θ During typhus.
Tongue: bright red; heavy, stiff and numb; projected with difficulty.

Profuse flow of slow of saliva, with dryness of the throat.
Inflammation of mucous membrane of mouth and throat.
Heat in the mouth, with thirst.

Tickling in the throat, as if coryza were setting in, inducing cough and clearing the throat.
Much greenish, thin mucus in throat, comes sometimes involuntarily into the mouth.
Inflammation and redness of the palate and fauces.
Tonsils inflamed and swollen; here and there spots covered with pus, swallowing difficult.

Great thirst, but no appetite.
Aversion to food; loathing the sight and still more the smell of it.

Nausea, eructations and copious vomiting of mucus and bile.
Frequent copious eructations of tasteless gas.
Nausea, with great restlessness, and on assuming the upright posture, a qualmishness in stomach and inclination to vomit.
Violent retching, followed by copious and forcible vomiting of food and then of bile; better if lies perfectly still.

Epigastrium extremely sensitive to touch or pressure.
Stomach icy-cold, with colic.
Colic: aggravated by eating; after flatulent food; with great distention of belly; better when bending double.

Pain in right hypochondrium, as from incarcerated flatus.
Anxious feeling in the præcordia.

Flatulent distention of the abdomen, with less frequent and less copious stools.
Pressing, tearing, cutting or stitching pains in abdomen.
Tympanitis.
Colic: aggravated by eating; after flatulent food; with great distention of belly; until diarrhœa sets in; better from bending double.

Very offensive flatus in the evening.
Stools: frequent, abundant, watery, with flocculi; yellowish and bloody; scanty, with tenesmus, salivation and copious secretion of urine; copious, frequent, watery, or bilious, often without pain, sometimes with cutting colic; scanty, difficult, of bloody mucus and shreds, with pain in anus and violent tenesmus constant, ineffectual effort to pass feces; green, watery, very offensive mucus; pass insensibly, involuntarily.
Spasm of the sphincter during or independent of discharge, with a shuddering over the back.
Stools frequent, somewhat bloody, and very fetid; dysentery.

Pain in the region of the kidneys.
More urging and more discharge of urine.
Urine: copious, watery and frequent; dark and turbid, with tenesmus of bladder and burning in urethra; of sour smell and acid reaction; dark, scanty, discharged in drops, whitish sediment; bloody, almost like ink, containing albumen.
Urine scanty, looking like bits of decomposed blood, with offensive smell.
Urethra hurts while the urine passes, as if raw.

Tearing in glans and left spermatic cord.

Menses too early.

Feverish restlessness, in the last months of pregnancy.
Nipples dark, brownish-red, protruding; unbearable pain on the slight touch by child; breast full, skin hot, pulse strong (lying-in, fourth day).

Voices hoarse, or deeper than usual.

Accelerated and audible; slow; irregular; asthmatic.
Oppression of the chest.

Slight cough, with coryza.
Frequent, short, dry cough, from tickling in the larynx.
Night cough, with involuntary spurting out of urine.

Dull stitches in posterior part of the thorax, during expiration.
Violent cutting pain in the chest, interrupting breathing.
Stinging in the region of the heart, with oppression.
Spitting blood, after injuries.

Violent palpitation, with anxiety.
Heart disease, following acute rheumatism.
Hydropericardium.
Pulse: accelerated and hard, or full and slow; slow and feeble; quick and thready.

Stinging and tearing in the muscles of chest.

Stitching and tension between the scapulæ.
Rheumatic pains in neck and back.
Drawing, tension and stitches occurring, or much aggravated, on motion.
Sudden tearing and shooting in the loins.
Spot on the sacrum feels sore, as if ulcerated; very sensitive to touch.

Rheumatic pains: on the clavicle, shoulders, arms, back and neck, preventing motion of the head; in elbow-joint, forearm, wrist, and ligaments of finger-joints.
Laming pain in the arms, which makes it impossible to hold the lightest thing.
Œdematous swelling of the hands.

Flying pains in the hips.
Tearing: in the thighs; knee-joints, with swellings; in patella; in tibiæ, calves, ankles, toes, tendo-achillis.
With the pains, weariness, heaviness, and inability to move.
Knees strike together, can hardly walk.
Œdematous swelling and coldness of legs and feet.
Tingling in the toes, like after being frosted.

Numbness of the hands and feet, with pricking, as if asleep.
Pains in the shoulder and hip-joints; and in all the bones, with difficulty of moving the head and the tongue.
Tearing pains in the muscles and joints.

Exertion: 1. Motion: 3, 4, 31, 32, 34. Rising: 2, 16. Sitting: 2. Stooping: 3. Bending double: 17, 19.

Great weakness, as after exertion.
Sudden sinking of strength; extreme prostration.
Paralytic feeling with the pains.
Paralysis after sudden suppression of sweat, particularly foot-sweat, by getting wet.

Comatose state.
Great sleepiness during the day, falls asleep while reading.
At night, sleep disturbed or driven away by pains.
Wakened from sleep by frightful dreams.
Starting, jerking in sleep.
Lying on the back.

Evening: 20. Night: 27, 37, 40. Day: 37.

Warm: 40. Cold: 10. Getting wet: 36.

Chill and shivering, running through all the limbs; even in the warm room.
Frequent shivering, running down the back.
Chilliness even near the warm stove, intermingled with short flushes of heat.
External dry heat the whole night, with violent, unquenchable thirst.
Body hot and limbs cold. θ In typhus.
Sweat wanting. θ In intermittents.
Copious sour sweat, suddenly coming and going. θ In rheumatism.

Autumn dysentery.

Right: 18. Left: 3, 18, 22, 28. Above downwards: 40. Cures gout going from left to right.

Shuddering and creeping, in isolated parts, such as is felt on getting cold from change of weather.
Tearing tensive pains over small parts, at a time; quickly changing location.

Acts markedly on the periosteum; synovial membranes of joints, especially small joints; that part of nervous system which presides over function of voluntary motion.
Stands in close relation to the fibrous tissues; redness, swelling, heat, etc., not tending to suppuration, but easily and quickly changing location; redness paling as disease shifts.
Painful flexion of the joints.
Emaciation.
Œdema.
Anasarca.
Dropsy of cavities and internal organs, especially hydropericardium; hydrothorax; ascites; hydrometra.

Touch: 1, 17, 24, 31. Pressure: 10, 17. When the head is raised: 4.

Skin dry sweat suppressed, or profuse sweating.
Stitches in the skin.
Tingling here and there, as after being frosted.

Gout in persons of vigorous constitution.
Often indicated with old people.

Antidotes to Colchic.: For the affection of the heart, feels as if dying: Spigel. Copious draughts of rice water, prevent its action on the bowels. In poisonings give Amm. caust., a few drops in sugar water.
General antidotes to Colchic.: Bell., Camphor., Coccul., Nux vom., Pulsat.
Colchic. follows well where Nux vom. or Lycop. has relieved.

A tincture is prepared from the fresh bulbs of colchicum autumnale, L.

It produces violent inflammation of the gastro-intestinal canal, with profound depression of the heat and of the temperature. ▶ It produces also acute inflammation of the kidneys. ▶ It is specially interesting to note that it produces symptoms of the acute manifestations of gout, quite apart from any direct modifications of the excretion of urea or uric acid. ▶ Its relief of acute gout seems to be purely a homœopathic action.

Verat. alb., Merc. cor., Arnica, Rhus t., China.

Solid constituents of defibrinated blood diminished, also the absolute amount of blood-corpuscles and of plasma. ▶ Appearance of being in the advanced stage of typhoid fever. ▶ Stretching. ▶ Trembling. ▶ Convulsions; of left side and muscles of face; involving neck and face, jaws clenched, froth from mouth, eyes distorted; limbs spasmodically flexed, fingers and toes flexed, eyes convulsively rotated, left hand, which kept hold of penis, trembled, C. became more frequent, extended to muscles op neck, jaws clenched, frothing at the mouth; right arm could not be extended, the left could not be flexed, feet were drawn upward, soles formed a half circle and toes were spasmodically drawn inward. ▶ Tearing jerks, agg. left side; suddenly through one half of body.

Stitches above eyes, in shoulders, elbows and wrists. ▶ Tearings here and there. ▶ Cutting or pinching in spots, now in right anterior and lower part of chest, now deep in hepatic region, now in region of spleen. ▶ Pinching and crawling in some toes, in ball of right foot, in fingers, ears and in spots of skin of face, in evening, as after freezing or change of weather. ▶ Drawing, jerking and tearing in incisors, facial muscles and other muscles here and there. ▶ Tearing tension here and there, for example, below pit of stomach, in ribs of left side, below axilla, in right popliteal space. ▶ "Aching all over." rheumatic pain in whole body in evening agg. in back, upper arms and shoulders. ▶ Tremulous sensation in whole body as from fasting, in afternoon, agg. after dinner. ▶ Sensitiveness to slightest touch (Arn., China, Bell., etc.).

Confused sensation. ▶ Malaise, with formication. ▶ Much affected by work, agg. reading or writing. ▶ Discomfort; prickling. ▶ Restlessness (Rhus t.); in morning, constantly turning head from left to right; could not lie on left side. ▶ Disinclination to work. ▶ No inclination to leave the bed. ▶ Exhaustion (China, Rhus t., Verat., etc.). ▶ Weakness; all day, amel. in evening; in morning; in morning on waking; in morning on rising; in evening; on ascending steps; after stool, with indolence, sleepiness, prostration of limbs; when sitting quietly, sleepiness, ascending steps; after stool, with indolence, sleepiness, prostration of limbs; when sitting quietly, amel. moving (Rhus t.), especially on open air, returning on sitting down, with restlessness (Rhus t.); with paralyzed feeling, agg. in arms; sudden W. ▶ Faintness; after a copious stool. ▶ Muscles seem paralyzed, agg. limbs; paralysis of right side, with only slight sensation, the toes on slightest touch drawn towards sole. ▶ Aggravation from mental exertion; from coffee; of all pains at beginning of night and at daybreak. ▶ Amelioration from rubbing; A. for a short time after every attack of vomiting; after stools, except pains in pelvic organs, which become worse.

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It produces violent inflammation of the gastro-intestinal canal, with profound depression of the heart and of the temperature. It produces also acute inflammation of the kidneys. It is specially interesting to note that it produces symptoms of the acute manifestations of gout, quite apart from any direct modifications of the excretion of urea or uric acid. Its relief of acute gout seems to be purely a homœopathic action.

General sensitiveness to the slightest touch.
Weakness; exhaustion, with paralytic feeling in all the limbs; very easily affected by night watching.
Pains, tearing, jerking, sticking, like electric shocks, in all parts of the body, with paralytic sensation; pains become worse and intolerable towards evening, and become better only at daybreak.
Sensitiveness of the whole body, especially of the affected parts, to the slightest touch and motion.
Crawling sensation in various parts of the body as after being frozen.
Tearing pains seem worse in warm weather, sticking pains in cold weather.
General tendency to collapse, with internal coldness.

Intolerant of the pain; his troubles seem unendurable.
External impressions, as, for example a bright light, or strong odors, or touch, make him beside himself on account of intolerance.
Memory weak.
Mind generally distracted.

Aching in the occiput, < mental effort.
Neuralgic, tearing pains in the scalp; crawling over the head, or on the forehead.

Diffused inflammation and congestion.
Inflammation and swelling of the margins of the lids.

Clinical:
Kerato-iritis, with pus in anterior chamber of the eye.
Occasional attacks of rheumatic inflammation of iris (see Clematis); ulcerations of cornea and opacities of cornea.

Tearing pain in the ears, with discharge (after measles).
Crawling in the ears.

Smell morbidly acute; odor of cooking makes him sick and faint.

Face sunken, pinched as in collapse.
Face sometimes yellow, mottled.
Pain as if the bones of the face were forced asunder.

Tearing pain in the roots of the teeth and gum, < taking anything cold into the mouth immediately after something warm.
General inflammation of the cavity of the mouth and fauces.
Saliva profuse.
Tongue insensible and stiff.

Great appetite for a variety of things, but as soon as they are seen or, still more, smelt it distresses him; he is nauseated and cannot eat.
Unquenchable thirst.
Eructations, with burning in the stomach.
Nausea and anxiety from the smell of cooking, or from fat food.
Violent retching and vomiting; first of food, then watery.
Vomiting, associated with watery diarrhœa and symptoms of cholera.
Violent vomiting; must lie bent up and very quietly.
Burning in the stomach, internally, sometimes with external coldness.

Clinical:
One of the most characteristic indications for Colchicum is craving for various things, but when they are brought to him, especially if he smells them, he is seized with extreme aversion and becomes nauseated, and may even vomit.
It is indicated in the most violent attacks of gastralgia, with retching and vomiting of food and bile; from the repression of gout.

Distention, as if one had eaten too much, or a pressing-downward pain.
Burning or feeling of coldness in the abdomen.

Clinical:
In typhlitis; in extreme distention of abdomen, with icy coldness in stomach; colic; occasional attacks of nausea and vomiting.
Ascites with the characteristic gastric symptoms.

Crawling, tearing and burning in the rectum.
Violent tenesmus, followed by scanty, transparent, bilious, membranous mucus, with relief of colic.
Spasmodic constriction of sphincter, with chilliness running up the back, followed by urging to stool.
Stool with many white shreds; like dysentery, slimy; bloody, with tenesmus; watery, copious, yellowish and offensive, containing pieces of white membrane, etc.

Clinical:
Dysentery; great tenesmus; discharges jellylike or bloody, mucous or changeable in character, but with great tenesmus, with or without stool, with tympanitis, colic, inability to stretch out the legs; at times the dysenteric discharges are reddish, mucous, like scrapings of intestines; sometimes there is even protrusion of the lower bowels (Pod.).
Especially indicated in autumnal dysentery (compare Aloes and Mercurius).

Frequent urging to urinate, but with scanty discharge.
Strangury, with bloody urine.
Urine deposits a white sediment.

Clinical:
Nephritis, with extreme pain in the region of the kidneys; in some cases aggravated by stretching out legs, as from pressure on the kidneys, in the abdominal cavity; urine bloody or dark albuminous; in some cases there are symptoms of inflammation of the neck of the bladder, with terrible pain after urinating (Canth.).
Inflamed kidneys, with pain in back and sacrum; hot, burning urine: constant chilliness and cold extremities, with coldness in stomach.

Difficult breathing, with oppression of the chest, > bending forward.
Cough short, dry.
Cough at night, with involuntary micturition.
Stitches in the chest on inspiration and coughing.

Tremulous feeling in the præcordial region, with sticking pain.
Anxiety in the region of the heart, causing sighing.
Oppression; extending into left side of chest, obliging deep inspiration; or with trembling of the heart.
Fullness at night, with oppression, as from stagnation.
Sensitiveness in the region of the heart to pressure.
Palpitation; dull, irregular, suppressed beats, with indescribable sensation.
Impulse of the heart not felt; heart sounds heard with difficulty, or a blowing sound; sounds, like a heart, heard at a great distance, or through a stone wall.

Clinical:
Chronic or subacute pericarditis, with exudation of water in pericardium, with severe pain about heart; oppression and dyspnœa, as if the chest were squeezed with a tight band (Cact.); in these cases the heart's action is weak and indistinct, the pulse may even be threadlike; in many cases there is chronic feeling of icy coldness at pit of stomach.

Drawing pains in the back, small of the back.
Tension and pain in the region of the kidneys (with inflammation).
Pains in the region of the kidneys, > lying on the back and drawing up legs.

Pains in the smaller joints, fingers, toes, wrists and ankles; also in the shoulder and knee joints, during rest, with uneasiness.
Joints generally feel stiff and inflamed.
Paralytic pain in the arms, so that he cannot hold the slightest thing.
Tearing in the arms, extending to the fingers.
Crawling in the tips of the fingers.
Drawing pains in the whole lower extremities, even to the toes.
Œdematous swelling of the leg and foot.
Crawling in the tips of the toes.

Clinical:
Gouty diathesis; soreness of the flesh, of the joints; extreme irritability; intolerance of touch, with gastric symptoms.
Articular rheumatism, with tearing, jerking pains, cardiac complications, gastric symptoms.
Shifting rheumatism; pains aggravated towards night; the patient is very irritable, etc.
It is generally indicated when the smaller joints are affected; the pains are violent, often paralytic, so that the patient can hold nothing in the hands; or when the feet are affected they become swollen, œdematous; it is difficult to lift the feet.
Rheumatism or gout in heel, which is extremely sore, with tearing pains.
Inflammation of the joint of great toe, with acute pain as from sharp sticking.
Cannot bear to have it touched or to have any one come near him.

General tendency to coldness, especially of the extremities, or internal coldness in the abdomen; sometimes with cold breath, nausea and vomiting, followed by cold sweat, etc.
Pulse rapid, irritable.
Dry heat, especially at night, with great thirst.

Clinical:
Occasionally indicated in typhoid fever, tympanitis, coldness in stomach, cold breath, nausea and vomiting; cold sweat, albuminous urine.
Effects of sudden suppression of perspiration in gastralgia, etc.

Colch. / (Coach.) / Coachman.

Colchicum, for prime causation,
Has rheumatic inflammation.
And with rheumatism has
Bloat of water, and of gas.
Bloody-shreddy-are his stools,
Urine dark in scanty pools.
Stomach sick from smell of food,
Mind in irritable mood.
Painful tearing, at its height
When in motion, and at night.

The Coachman,-Has Rheumatism.

The Coachman, Bryon Kalmi, with a jar of butter, limps on the road leading to Gaul, with the yellow squaw, Lithia.

This Coachman,-Who is subject to Nausea from odor of food,-is at the Wine, with the black tinner.

Rheumatism: Colch., Bry., Kalmi., Aco., Rhus., Bell., Tart. e., Lyc., Mer., Pul., Sul., Rhod., Led., Gaultheria tincture, ten drops in sugar, Gel., Cimi., Lith. c., etc. (Muscular especially, Cimi., Stict.)

Nausea from Odor of Food: Colch., Ars., Nux. v., Sep., Stan.

Indicated in gout and rheumatic affections of joints with dread of having the parts touched and excessive pain from the slightest touch or knock; in fall-dysentery; in bad effects of night watching.

Great irritability.

Great prostration, with coldness and sense of collapse.

Nausea from the smell of cooking food, even from talking about it.

Gastric indigestion, with drum-like distension of the abdomen.

He craves different things, but when he smells them they excite nausea, even vomiting.

Vomiting of mucus, bile and food, with sense of coldness in the stomach and great exhaustion.

Diarrhoea of scanty, jelly-like stools, with much pain and drum-like distension of the abdomen;; often with painful urging and feeling as though the anus were torn open; stools contain white shreds, scrapings (fall-dysentery).

Rheumatic pains in the joints and toes; redness, heat, swelling; great sensitiveness to touch and motion; worse at night and in warm weather. Pain drawing, tearing, pressing; from left to right.

Anxious distress about the heart; cannot feel impulse of the heart; oppression; pulse thready.

Urine scanty, bloody, very dark.

Skin noticeably dry; no moisture or sweat.

Worse from motion; smell of food; loss of sleep.

Better when quiet; from sleeping; after stool.

Distraction and forgetfulness. Surly ill - humor. His sufferings seem intolerable. Slight pain or external causes and impressions put him quite beside himself.

Pressive pain in occiput excited by mental exertion. Tearing in scalp. Crawling on head and over forehead. Worse: Mental exertion, noise. Better: Rest, lying.

Ulceration of meibomian grands with swollen lids.

Crawling in. Suppurating, with tearing pain therein (after measles).

Crawling in. Smell morbidly acute.

Doleful, sad expression. Yellow, spotted color. Edematous swelling of. Crawling in. Sensations if bones were being driven asunder.

Tearing in roots of, and in gums.

Heat in. Crawling in fauces. Inflamed buccal cavity and fauces. Profuse salivation. Tongue insensible and stiff.

Taste: Food tastes like old linen.

Sensitiveness of region, to touch. Burning or cold sensation in. Stitches in pit.

Appetite: Lost. Incessant, intense thirst.

Nausea, etc. - Nausea from odors, of fresh eggs or fat meat. Vomiting: Violent of ingesta, leaving a bitter aftertaste, renewed by every movement.

Distension of, with dragging pains. Burning or cold sensation in. Ascites, with a fold overhanging the pubic arch. (sep.)

Painful urging, with scanty discharge. Constipated. Dysenteric, of white mucus only, with intense tenesmus.

Crawling, taring and burning in.

Constant urging to urinate, with scanty discharge. Scanty discharge of dark red urine with burning and urging in urethra Whitish sediment

Menses: Too early.

Difficult, with anxious oppression of chest, better bending forward.

Frequent, short, dry. At night, with involuntary spurting of urine.

Pressive tension in. Spasms in. Hydrothorax. Stitches in, during inspiration and when coughing. Violent palpitation.

Tearing in, and in lumbar region. Painful soreness of lumbar region to touch.

Tearing in arms, extending into fingers. Paralytic pain in arms. Crawling in finger tips.

Tearing through entire leg extending into toes. (Edematous swelling of legs and feet. Crawling in tips of toes.

Creeping in many parts of body, as after being frosted, during changing weather. Tearing in limbs during warm, and sticking in during cold weather. Tearing jerks like electric shocks, with paralytic sensation though' one whole side of body. Weakness though' all limbs, with a feeling as if paralyzed, Debility and weakness from night work and night watching. Frequent starting. The pains become quite unendurable toward evening and only grow less at break of day. Sensitiveness to touch and motion, of entire body, especially the suffering parts. Tendency to dropsy.

Edematous swelling and anasarca. Suppressed transpiration.

Pulse: Extraordinarily accelerated, hard and full. Chill: And shuddering running though' all the members. Frequent cold shudders run down the back. Heat: Only externally, a dry heat of the skin. Dry, but only external, throughout the whole night, with violent, insatiable thirst. Sweat: Completely suppressed and wanting. l

Allied Remedies. Ars., Bell., Flu-ac., Merc., Nux-v., Op., Puls., Tab.

Complementary: Ars., Spi.

Tearing in the limbs during warm weather and stinging during cold weather.

Tingling in many parts of the body, as if frost-bitten whenever the weather changes.

Shocks as from electricity through one-half of the body, with sensation of paralysis.

Sensitiveness of the whole body, especially the affected parts, to contact and to motion.

Weakness and debility from night study and from loss of sleep.

Frequent startings.

Tingling in the points of the fingers and toes.

Dropsical swelling and dropsy of the skin.

Scanty discharge of dark red urine with tenesmus.

Nausea from the odor of fat meat or eggs.

Dysentery with gastric symptoms and discharge of white mucus with much tenesmus.

Bad effects from suppressed perspiration.

Aggravation in the evening, during an expiration.

Amelioration while stooping.