Remedy
Convallaria Majalis conv.
3 books on the shelf carry Convallaria Majalis. Read them in the order a bedside reading goes: the short cards first, the long books after.
Homœopathic Materia Medica
William Boericke · Homœopathic Materia Medica · 9th edition
Common name
Lily of the Valley
General
A heart remedy. Increases energy of hearts' action, renders it more regular. Of use when the ventricles are overdistended and dilatation begins, and when there is an absence of compensatory hypertrophy, and when venous stasis is marked. Dyspnœa, dropsy, aneuric tendency. Anasarca.
Mind and Head
Dull intellect. Grieves easily. Dull headache; worse, ascending, hawking. Scalp sensitive. Irritability. Hysterical manifestations.
Face
Hydroa in nose and lips; raw and sore. Epistaxis. Sees imaginary gray spot about three inches square.
Mouth
Grating of teeth in the morning. Coppery taste. Tongue feels sore and scalded; broad and thick with heavy, dirty coating.
Throat
Raw feeling in back of throat when inspiring.
Abdomen
Sensitive. Clothes feel too tight. Gurgling and pain on taking deep breath. Movement in abdomen like fist of a child. Colicky pains.
Urinary Organs
Aching in bladder; feels distended. Frequent urination; offensive; scanty urine.
Female
Great soreness in uterine region, with sympathetic palpitation of heart. Pain in sacro-iliac joints, running down leg. Itching at urinary meatus and vaginal orifice.
Respiratory
Pulmonary congestion. Orthopnea. Dyspnœa while walking. Hot feeling in throat.
Heart
Feeling as if heart beat throughout the chest. Endocarditis, with extreme orthopnea. Sensation as if heart ceased beating, then starting very suddenly. Palpitation from the least exertion. Tobacco heart, especially when due to cigarettes. Angina pectoris. Extremely rapid and irregular pulse.
Back and Extremities
Pain and aching in lumbar region; aching of legs; in big toe. Trembling of hands. Aching in wrists and ankles.
Fever
Chilly in back and down spine, followed by fever, little sweat. Thirst and headache during chill. Dyspnœa during fever.
Relationship
Compare: Digit; Crataeg; Lilium; Adonis (feeble heart action due only to functional disturbance).
Modalities
Better, in open air. Worse, in warm room.
Dose
Third attenuation, and for symptoms of heart failure, tincture, one to fifteen drops.
Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics
E. B. Nash · Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics · homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML text (Nash d. 1917; public domain)
Leaders
I believe the lily of the valley is to become one of our very valuable remedies. It ought to receive a Hahnemannian proving. I have used it with much satisfaction in women who complained of great soreness in the uterine region and sympathetic palpitation of the heart. It has also served me well in dropsies of cardiac origin, especially in women who have at the same time the above mentioned soreness in uterine region. I once checked the progress of a very bad case of cardiac dropsy after the effusion in the chest had so increased that the patient could not breathe when lying down, and there was much bloody expectoration. I used the 30th potency in this case, though many times very fine results follow the use of the remedy in much lower preparations. The dropsy all disappeared and she was able to be around and enjoy life very well, though the organic heart trouble was not removed.
Bovista has been of use to me in only one affection, but in that it is invaluable -menorrhagia. The flow is always worse, or sometimes flows only in the night in bed. I do not know of a more reliable symptom. It has helped and cured many cases, both acute and chronic.
It has also sometimes a flow between the periods like, Ambra grisea, but the latter remedy has more nervous or hysterical symptoms.
Ustilago maydis is also a remedy that is very useful in menorrhagia or metrorrhagia, and I think I have observed that it is best adapted to those cases where the flow is of a passive nature (Thlaspi bursa pastoris.) There is apt to be more or less pain and irritation, at the same time, in one or both ovaries. It is especially useful in these cases at the climacteric. I have cured some very bad cases, and always use both this remedy and Bovista in the 200th potency.
A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica
John Henry Clarke · A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · 1st edition (1900-02, three volumes); homeoint.org / Médi-T HTML digitization
General
Convallaria majalis. Lily of the Valley. N. O. Liliaceæ.
Clinical
Diarrhœa. Heart, affections of. Herpes. Pruritus vulvæ. Vomiting (of pregnancy).
Characteristics
Convallaria is a popular remedy in Russia for heart affections, and it has been introduced into old-school medicine principally as a heart remedy. It compares closely in its action with Lilium tigrinum , and also resembles its other botanical relatives, Aloe, Allium cepa , and Allium sativum . It is strongly purgative and causes morning vomiting. It has been proved, and the symptoms produced snow that its nearest analogue is Lilium tigrinum . Nash has used it in 30th with very satisfactory results in women complaining of great soreness in uterine region with sympathetic palpitation of the heart. He has also removed cardiac dropsy when this uterine soreness has been present as well. Berridge credits it with this symptom: "Movement in the abdomen as from the fist of a child," like sul., Thuj., Croc . In the case of Conval . the symptom occurs " when lying on the back ." Sleepiness accompanies many symptoms. > In open air, < in warm room (like Cepa ).
Mind
Depression. ─ Mind wanders from subject when reading. ─ Dull, can hardly think. ─ Irritable when asked a question.
Head
Dull, heavy pains at vertex > open air. ─ Headache with fever, < jarring, > rest.
Eyes
Sees imaginary grey spots about 3 in. square in different parts of the room on coming in from a walk. ─ When reading sees small words (as "the," "it," "too,") before beginning of sentence, when they are not there. ─ P is substituted for other letters. ─ About every fifteen minutes, dull pains from r. eye over top of head and down r. side of neck. ─ Eyelids heavy.
Face
Face and lips sore, crop of small hydroa, feel raw.
Mouth
Fine red points on tip of tongue. ─ Intense redness and soreness of tongue, looks like raw beef; granular and quite clean, with tenderness of stomach. ─ Coppery taste in mouth. ─ Water tastes bitter.
Stomach
Morning sickness and vomiting.
Abdomen
Severe colic; pains come quickly and pass off slowly. ─ Dull aching pain and sore feeling in hypogastrium, < when coughing. ─ Labour-like pains. ─ Movement in abdomen like the fist of a child.
Stool and Anus
Tenesmus. ─ Slightly thin stool, brown, offensive with tenesmus and heat at anus after stool. ─ Sensation in rectum as if full of gas, not > by passing flatus.
Female Sexual Organs
Labour-like pains in sacro-iliac joints, worse r. side, running down leg intermittently. ─ Sensation as if a large cord extended from sacro-iliac synchondrosis to inguinal region, and this cord was pulled down by pelvic organs ( < r. side); sensation as if uterus descended and retroverted, pressing on rectum and anus, pain continuous and unbearable. ─ Soreness in uterine region with palpitation of the heart. ─ Itching at urinary meatus and orifice of vagina.
Heart
When exercising, fluttering at heart, lasting about a minute, then face would get red, with sensation as if heart stopped beating and would start again very suddenly, with faint, sick feeling. ─ Pulse full, compressible, intermittent. ─ Symptoms > after lying down.
Back
Bruised aching in back. ─ Pain in back and wrists, gradually passing off. ─ Chills run along back at every movement.
Limbs
Aching in wrists and ankles.
Skin
Blotches like mosquito-bites, itching violently, on undressing scratches till the skin comes off.