Helleborus Niger hell.

Boger's Synoptic Key — Materia Medica

C. M. Boger · Boger's Synoptic Key — Materia Medica · A Synoptic Key of the Materia Medica, 1915 — the Materia Medica half

Region

MIND. BRAIN. Sensorium. Nerves; motor; sensory. Membranes: Serous. Mucous. Kidneys. Muscles. Exudations.

Worse

Cold air. Puberty. Dentition. Suppressions. Exertion. Evening (4-8 P.M.).

Better

Strong attention.

General

A dark, dusky remedy; dark face; sooty nostrils; dark lips, hands, etc. Serous effusions. Gradual onset, with advancing weakness, blunted senses and sluggish responses; drops things, staggers, etc. Automatic acts. Lies on back with knees drawn up. Muscle pains, spasm or paralysis. Feeble and delicate.

Particulars

Inattention. Stupid, obtuse or apathetic. Brain symptoms, with anorexia. Blank, somber despair. Won't eat or speak. Fixed ideas. Things look new. Heavy, numbing headache. Rolls head or bores it into pillow for relief. Congestion. Hydrocephalus. Stupid, staring or tired look. Eyes half open. Pale face. Chewing motions. Fetor oris. Numb, dry, trembling tongue or covered with yellow ulcers. Ptyalism. Averse to vegetables. Distended abdomen. Watery or gelatinous stool. Urine, scanty, with dark flecks or sediment; retained. Nephritis. Uræmia. Dropsy. Amenorrhœa from cold. Small, soft pulse. Sopor; with cries or starts. Coldness. Chill, with fever or heat; with sweat.

Related

Complementary: Zin. Related: Bry. Op. Zin.

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

Weakly, delicate,, psoric children; prone to brain troubles (Bell., Cal., Tub.); with serous effusion. Melancholy: woeful; despairing; silent; with anguish; after typhoid; in girls at puberty, or when menses fail to return after appearing. Irritable, easily angered; consolation < (Ign., Nat., Sep., Sil.); does not want to be disturbed (Gels., Nat.); Unconscious; stupid; answers slowly when questioned; a picture of acute idiocy (of chronic, Bar. c.). Brain symptoms during dentition (Bell., Pod.); threatening effusion (Apis., Tub.). Meningitis: acute, cerebro-spinal, tubercular, with exudation; paralysis more or less complete; with the cri encephalique. Vacant, thoughtless staring; eyes wide open; insensible to light; pupils dilated, or alternately contracted and dilated. Soporous sleep, with screams, shrieks, starts. Hydrocephalus, post-scarlatinal or tubercular which develops rapidly (Apis, Sulph., Tub.); automatic motion of one arm and leg. Convulsions with extreme coldness of body, except head or occiput, which may be hot (Arn.). Greedily swallows cold water; bites spoon, but remains unconscious. Chewing motion of the mouth; corners of mouth sore, cracked; nostrils dirty and sooty, dry. Constantly picking his lips, clothes, or boring into his nose with the finger (while perfectly conscious, Arum.). Boring head into pillow: rolling from side to side; beating head with hands. Diarrhoea: during acute hydrocephalus, dentition, pregnancy; watery; clear, tenacious, colorless, mucus; white, jelly-like mucus; like frog spawn; involuntary. Urine: red, black, scanty, coffee-ground sediment; suppressed in brain troubles and dropsy; albuminous. Dropsy: of brain, chest, abdomen; after scarlatina, intermittents; with fever, debility, suppressed urine; from suppressed exanthemata (Apis, Zinc.).

Relations

Compare: Apis, Apos., Ars., Bell., Bry., Dig., Lach., Sulph., Tab., Zinc. in brain or meningeal affections.

Key-Notes to the Materia Medica

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

General

In dropsical affections; dropsy of outer parts and of inner parts; which are usually white, turn red. Absence of thirst in all complaints; chilliness, heat, perspiration, without thirst. Discharge of urine too scanty; urine with dark sediment like coffee grounds--top part is clear, but having this sediment. Nausea at the stomach; rumbling and rolling in the bowels; darting in the joints, also in the bones; prickling in the bones; heat with shuddering.

Worse

In the evening; in cold air.

Better

In the warm air.

Remedies following

Bellad., Bryon., China, Lycop., Pulsat., Nux vom., Phosphor., Sulphur.

Antidote

China.

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

Stools consisting solely of clear, tenacious, colourless mucus. Dropsical affections of the brain, especially after scarlatina, or summer complaint, or during dentition. Constant chewing motion of the jaws, grind the teeth. Loss of control of the mind over the body, must strongly concentrate the mind on what he is doing or the muscles do not act properly.

Homœopathic Materia Medica

William Boericke · Homœopathic Materia Medica · 9th edition

Common name

Snow-rose (HELLEBORUS)

General

Produces a condition of sensorial depression. Sees, hears, tastes imperfectly, and general muscular weakness, which may go on to complete paralysis, accompanied by dropsical effusions. Hence, a remedy in low states of vitality and serious disease. Characteristic aggravation from 4 to 8 pm (Lycop). Sinking sensation. State of effusion in hydrocephalus. Mania of a melancholy type.

Mind

Slow in answering. Thoughtless; staring. Involuntary sighing. Complete unconsciousness. Picks lips and clothes.

Head

Forehead wrinkled in folds. Cold sweat. Stupefying headache. Rolls head day and night; moaning, sudden screams. Bores head into pillow; beats it with hands. Dull pain in occiput, with sensation of water swashing inside. Headache culminates in vomiting.

Eyes

Eyeballs turn upwards; squinting, vacant look. Pupils dilated. Eyes wide open, sunken. Night-blindness.

Nose

Dirty, dry nostrils. Rubs nose. Smell diminished. Nose pointed.

Face

Pale, sunken. Cold sweat. Wrinkled. Neuralgia on left side; parts so tender he cannot chew.

Mouth

Horrible smell from mouth. Lips dry and cracked. Tongue red and dry. Falling of lower jaw. Meaningless picking of lips. Grinding of teeth. Chewing motion. Greedily swallows cold water, though unconscious. Child nurses greedily, with disgust for food. Ptyalism, with sore corners of mouth.

Abdomen

Gurgling, as if bowels were full of water. Swollen, painful to touch.

Stool

Jelly-like, white mucus; involuntary.

Urine

Suppressed; scanty, dark; coffee-grounds sediment. Frequent urging. Child cannot urinate. Bladder overdistended.

Respiratory

Frequent sighing. Respiration irregular. Chest constricted; gasps for breath. Hydrothorax (Merc sulph).

Extremities

Automatic motion of one arm and leg. Limbs heavy and painful. Stretching of limbs. Thumb drawn into palm (Cupr). Vesicular eruption between fingers and toes.

Sleep

Sudden screams in sleep. Soporous sleep. Cri encephalique. Cannot be fully aroused.

Skin

Pale, dropsical, itching. Livid spots on skin. Sudden, watery, swelling of skin. Falling off of hair and nails. Angio-neurotic œdema.

Modalities

Worse, from evening until morning, from uncovering.

Relationship

(Hellebor fætidus, or, Polymnia-Bear's foot--Acts especially on spleen (Ceanothus); also rectum and sciatic nerve. Splenic pains extend to scapula, neck and head, worse left side and evening; chronic ague cake; hypertrophied uterus; glandular enlargements; hair and nails falling off; skin peeling). Hellebor orientalis (salivation).

Antidote: Camphor; Cinch.

Compare: Threatening effusion; Tuberc; Apis; Zinc; Opium; Cinch; Cicuta; Iodoform.

Dose

Tincture, to third potency.

Leaders in Homoeopathic Therapeutics

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

Leaders

Another remedy of not very wide range, so far as we have any clinical knowledge, but so far so we do know is invaluable.

We know of its use in the advanced stage of serious brain troubles, such as meningitis or any trouble of the brain where is threatened effusion, or effusion already present.

Symptoms: Head rolling from side to side on the pillow, with screams; great stupidity or soporous sleep; greedy drinking of water: wrinkled forehead with cold sweat; motion of jaws, as chewing something; dilated pupils, and often cannot be made to see or hear, or be made to sense anything at all; continual motion of one arm and leg, while the other lies as if paralyzed; urine scanty or entirely suppressed, sometimes sediment like coffee grounds. These symptoms indicate a desperate condition, and the patient will soon die comatose or in convulsions unless the proper remedy can be found.

Helleborus niger can often cure such cases, as I have often observed, not only in my own practice, but in that of others. I have sometimes observed that the first sign of improvement in such cases was a decided increase in the urine, and following it a general subsidence of all the other bad symptoms. I have used it with most prompt and satisfactory results in the 1000th (B. & T.) and 33m. (Fincke's) potencies.

Helleborus is also an excellent remedy in post-scarlatinal dropsies, which come on very rapidly. Here the coffee-grounds sediment may or may not be present. The choice is sometimes not easy between this remedy and Apis mellifica.

Text Book of Materia Medica

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

Mind and Disposition

Silent melancholy, with great anguish, much moaning, thoughtless staring and inability to think. Home-sickness. Sadness, despair of his life. Dulness of the internal senses. Diminished power of the mind over the body ; the muscles do not act properly, if the will is not strongly fixed upon their action ; if he talks he lets fall what he holds in the hand. Weakness of memory.

Head

Giddiness on stooping. Stupefying headache, with coryza (4 to 8 P.M.) ; worse from stooping, relieved at rest and in the open air. Pressing headache from outward to inward, with stupefaction and heaviness of the head ; worse on moving the head, from exertion ; better in the open air and from distraction of the mind. Inflammation of the brain, with stupefaction ; heat and heaviness of the head ; boring with the head in the pillows, with chilliness of the whole body ; coldness of the fingers ; worse from thinking of the pain. Hydrocephalus with stupefaction ; stupor ; or boring with the head in the pillows ; coldness of the body ; aggravated from stooping. Sensation of soreness of the head, as if bruised, especially in the back part of the head, with stupefaction worse on stooping. Burning heat in the head, with paleness of the face. Boring with the head in the pillows, with the sensation as if the scalp on the occiput were pulled down tight. Falling off of the hair (on the head and on the whole body), with pricking pain on the scalp, especially on the occiput, with pale, dropsical swelling of the face and body. Humid scurf on the scalp.

Eyes

Inclination to stare. Photophobia without inflammation. Sensation as if the eyelids were pressed down. Pupils dilated. Twitching in the levatores palpebrarum and the cheeks, with heat in the face.

Face

Pale-yellowish color of the face. Œdematous pale swelling of the face. The forehead is full of wrinkles. Soreness of the corners of the mouth, with continuous flow of saliva. White blisters (vesicles) on the swollen lips. The upper lip is cracked. Dull pain in the right malar bone.

Mouth and Throat

In the evening and at night pricking toothache in the molars ; can bear neither cold nor heat. Vesicles in the mouth and on the tongue. Ptyalism, with soreness of the corners of the mouth. Aphthæ in the mouth. Swelling of the tongue. Pimple on the tip of the tongue, painfully stinging when touched. Insensibility and numbness of the tongue. Dry, white tongue (in the morning).

Stomach and Abdomen

Nausea, sensation of hunger with repugnance to food. Vomiting of green-blackish substances, with colic. Fulness and distention of the pit of the stomach. Burning and scraping in the stomach. Painfulness of the stomach when coughing and walking. Gurgling in the bowels, as if full of water. Distention of the abdomen (Ascites). Sensation of coldness in the abdomen.

Stool and Anus

White, jelly-like stool, with tenesmus. Frequent watery stools. Stools consisting of pure, tenacious, white mucus. After an evacuation, burning hot smarting at the anus.

Urinary Organs

Frequent desire to urinate, emitting but a small quantity. Dark urine, feeble stream. A large quantity of pale, watery urine is emitted.

Sexual Organs

Suppressed sexual desire.

Respiratory Organs

Suffocative attacks, as from constriction of the lungs. Constriction of the throat, nose, chest. Hydrothorax. Dry cough while smoking tobacco.

Back

Stiffness of the cervical muscles as far as the occiput. Swelling of the cervical glands.

Extremities

Upper. Boring-sticking pain in the wrist and finger-joints. Humid, painless vesicles between the fingers. Ulceration around the nails. Lower. Stiffness of the hip and knee-joints. Pricking pain in the left hip. Boring-stinging in the knee and foot-joints. Humid, painless vesicles between the toes.

Sleep

Stupor, sopor. Lies in a stupor, with the eyes half open and with the pupils turned upward. Confused, anxious dreams, which cannot be recollected.

Generalities

Sudden relaxation of all the muscles. The muscles refuse their services, if not governed by strong attention and will. Convulsive twitching of the muscles (during sleep). Stinging-boring pains in the coverings of the bones ; worse in the cool air.

Fever

Pulse, small, slow, almost imperceptible. Chilliness predominates during the day, as long as he remains out of bed, with heat of the face and drowsiness. Chill with goose-flesh and pain in the joints. The chill begins and spreads from the arms. After lying down in bed, the heat comes on immediately, generally accompanied by perspiration. In the evening, in bed, burning heat over the whole body, with internal chilliness and aversion to drink ; when attempting to drink, very little can be taken at a time. Heat followed by chill, with colic. Perspiration while in bed with the heat ; worse towards morning. Cold, at times clammy perspiration.

Skin

Pale color of the skin. Sudden dropsical swelling of the skin ; Anasarca. The hair and nails fall off. Desquamation all over the body.

Conditions

The pains (pricking, tearing, pressing) run across the parts. Aggravation, in the evening (4 P.M.), in the cold air, and from bodily exertion. Amelioration in the warm air. In the open air he feels better, with the sensation as if he had been sick for a long time.

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

Black Hellebore. Christmas Rose. N. O. Ranunculaceæ. Tincture of dry powdered root. Juice of fresh root mixed with equal parts of alcohol.

Clinical

Albuminuria. Amenorrhœa. Aphthæ. Apoplexy. Cholera. Concussion. Convulsions. Cystitis. Depression of spirits . Diarrhœa. Dropsy . Epilepsy. Headache . Hernia. Home-sickness. Hydrocele. Hydrocephalus . Kidneys, congestion of. Melancholia. Meningitis . Night-blindness. Puerperal convulsions. Scarlatina. Tetanus. Typhoid fever. Ulcers. Wounds.

Characteristics

Black Hellebore was one of the drugs used to produce the "Helleborism of the ancients," the subject of Hahnemann's famous essay; but the drug most commonly employed was the While Hellebore , or Veratrum album , which belongs to another family, the Melanthaceæ. "Black" hellebore receives its name from the external colour of its root; the root of Ver. alb . is extremely white. Teste quotes Hahnemann as saying: "I conclude from various observations that one of the first effects of Black Hellebore is a kind of stupor, a dulness of the sensorium commune , a condition where, with sight unimpaired, nothing is seen very fully, and the patient does not pay any attention to anything; with the hearing perfectly sound, nothing is heard distinctly; with perfectly constituted gustatory organs, everything seems to have lost its taste; where the mind is often or always without ideas; where the past is forgotten or little remembered; where nothing gives one any pleasure; where one's sleep is very light, and a really sound, refreshing sleep is not to be had; and where one desires to work without having the necessary strength or attention required for it." Teste groups Hell. n. in the Chamomilla class, with Gratiola and Viola tric ., all of which cause "a particular derangement of the cerebral functions and even of the whole nervous system; a painful increase of the sentient action, followed by a considerable depression of the vital forces, and a certain disorder of the mental faculties." He cured with Hell. n . a case of epilepsy in a little girl five weeks old after the failure of Cham . Cham . was given to the nurse, Hell. n . directly to the patient. The history was this: The child, which was well formed, was constipated from the day of birth. The mother, twenty-eight, dark, robust, but of irritable temperament, laid the child's sickness to a fear she had had towards the end of her pregnancy. This may have been the case, but the lady had lost a boy in convulsions, precisely similar, the previous year. The little girl had every day five or six paroxysms, each lasting from one to three minutes, and almost always followed by sleep. There was sudden inability of the body, without any marked stiffness; head slightly thrown back; repeated oscillations of tongue from right to left, the tongue being slightly protruded from the mouth. Staring look, convulsive rolling upward of eyes when the paroxysms were very violent; a few acute cries followed by drowsiness, when the spasm was near its end. During the paroxysm the child remained so perfectly sensible that a slight shock, as the shutting of a door, arrested the paroxysms at once, and then shortened them a good deal. Hell. n . cured in two or three days. From a purely nervous derangement of this kind, the action of Hell. n . goes on to actual inflammatory states of the brain and its meninges. The drowsiness so prominent in Teste's case is a leading note of the conditions of meningitis and fever to which the drug is homeopathic. Such a condition is found when effusion has taken place from the inflamed membranes, and here the ancient reputation of Hell. n . in dropsical conditions is confirmed. The forehead is wrinkled; there are automatic movements of one arm and leg, whilst the other is paralysed; the head rolls from side to side with screams; greedy drinking of water; chewing motion of jaws; urine scanty or entirely suppressed, sometimes with sediment like coffee grounds. This condition of urine is an indication for Hell. n . in many states, and a sign of the favourable action of the remedy is, as Nash points out, an increase in the amount of flow. In post-scarlatinal dropsy with these indications it is of great service. It has cured concussion of the brain resulting from a blow on the head after Arn . had failed. In this case one pupil was larger than the other; the patient was drowsy, answered questions slowly; one leg dragged on walking. In fever there is sooty appearance of nostrils; dry, yellow tongue with red edges; breath horribly offensive; drinks roll audibly into stomach; fever < 4 to 8 p.m.; face pale, almost cold; pulse faint, imperceptible; picks clothes and lips. Guernsey sums up the remedy thus: "In dropsical affections; dropsy of outer parts and of inner parts; parts which are usually white turn red; absence of thirst in all complaints; chilliness, heat, perspiration without thirst. Discharge of urine too scanty; urine with dark sediment like coffee grounds ─ top part is clear, but leaving this sediment. Nausea at the stomach; rumbling and rolling in the bowels; darting in the joints, also in the bones; heat with shuddering." In addition to the "absence of thirst" there is "drinks with avidity, bites spoon, but remains unconscious," and "Thirst with disgust for drink," as there is also "Hunger: child nurses greedily with disgust for food." Hunger, yet food is repulsive though it tastes natural. The hungry, nauseated, uneasy sensation at the epigastrium showing its profound action on the solar ganglion. Cooper, who has studied the Hellebores very closely, says that they produce the "sinking sensation" more intensely than any other drugs. The Winter Aconite ( Eranthis hyemalis ), a close ally of Hell. n ., "acts on the solar plexus and works upwards, causing dyspnœa." He quotes ( H. W ., xxx. 210) from Flora Historica an interesting account of how French prisoners of war at Norman-cross were suffering from an epidemic of night-blindness (nyctalopia), when for lack of snuff they took to using powdered Black Hellebore , with the result that they were cured of their blindness in a few days. Among the dropsies cured may be mentioned hydrocele from suppressed eruptions. The old use of Helleb . as an application to ulcers seems to have depended on its property of draining the tissues. In the pathogenesis of Hell. fœt . is a symptom bearing on this profuse discharge from ulcerated surface." Cooper has cured ulcers with dropsical conditions with Hell. n . and Hell. v . given internally. The headaches of Hell. n . are stupefying; sensation as though contents of head were bulging at forehead and eyes; shocks pass through the brain like electricity; boring and shaking in forehead and occiput; bruised pain; heat in brain. Pains in occiput and nape of neck I have frequently cured with Hell. n .; also headache which the patient can only describe as a "stupid headache." There is vomiting and purging as with the other Hellebores, the vomit is apt to be green and the stools jelly-like. The pulse is slow and feeble, the respiration is slow and the temperature low. Torpidity and apathy run through the remedy. In this it approaches Opium . Apoplexy followed by idiocy. The symptoms are < 4 to 8 p.m., and in the evening and night (sees spirits; rolls head; dry cough; night-blindness); < in cool air; from uncovering; > in warm air; by wrapping up. < From exertion from motion; from stooping; breathing easier when lying down lying perfectly quiet > pains in head. Touch < . < When thinking of ailment; > when mind is diverted.

Relations

Antidoted by: Camph., Chi. Compatible: Zinc., Bell., Bry., Chi., Lyc., Nux v., Phos., Puls., Sul. Compare: Apis. (Apis has exquisite sensitiveness of abdomen; Hell. n. complete sensorial apathy; Hell. n. has puckering of face, dropping of jaw, and automatic action of limbs of one side; Apis has < from heat, Hell. n. > from heat); Apocy., Digit. (slow pulse); Kali bro., Lach.; Dig., Tereb. (breathes better lying down); Phos. ac. (sensorial depression, drowsiness, apathy; but Phos. ac. can be roused easily; muscles not completely relaxed, has not the dirty nostrils of Hell. n.). Opium (but the stupor of Op. is more profound; face dark, breathing stertorous); Zinc. (checked exanthemata; hydrocephalus; Zinc. has fidgety motion of feet); Lach. (coffee-ground sediment in urine; muscular weakness; jelly-like mucous diarrhœa accompanying dropsy); Pip. meth., Ox. ac. ( > when mind diverted); Nat. m. ( < from consolation).

Causation

Checked exanthemata. Blows. Disappointed love.

Mind

Melancholy taciturnity. ─ Excessive, and almost mortal anguish. ─ Home-sickness. ─ Hypochondriacal humour. ─ Tædium vitæ; envious seeing others happy. ─ Suicidal. ─ Indolence. ─ Sobbing lamentation. ─ Obstinate silence. ─ Irritable, < from consolation. ─ Suspicious. ─ Dulness of the internal senses. ─ Stupidity and want of reflection, with (thoughtless) fixedness of look on one single point, much moaning, and inability to think. ─ Weakness of the memory. ─ The mind seems to lose command over the body; the muscles refuse their office as soon as the attention is diverted (if the will is not strongly fixed upon their action; if he talks he lets fall what he holds in his hand).

Head

Giddiness on stooping. ─ Stupefying headache, with coryza (4 to 8 p.m.); < from stooping, > at rest and in the open air. ─ Stupefying pain, and sensation of bruising in the head. ─ Pressive and numbing headache. ─ Pressive headache from outward to inward, with stupefaction and heaviness of the head; < on moving the head, from exertion; > in open air and from distraction of mind. ─ Inflammation of the brain, with stupefaction; heat and heaviness of the head; < from thinking of the pain. ─ Hydrocephalus with stupefaction; stupor; boring with the head in the pillows; coldness of the body; < from stooping. ─ Painful heaviness, with burning pain in the head, coldness of the fingers, sensation of general shivering, and paleness of the face. ─ The headache is more bearable on keeping quiet, and endeavouring to sleep. ─ Bruised pain externally on vertex and occiput; esp. during the febrile chill; at every movement, esp. when stooping and going upstairs, the pain changes into a violent twitching in integuments of head > by external pressure. ─ Painful sensitiveness of the exterior of the head, and esp. at the occiput, as if it were bruised, on its being touched, and on moving the head. ─ Uninterrupted pressive pain in occiput extending toward nape of neck. ─ Headache extending from nape to vertex. ─ Jerking in the integuments of the head, during movement, when stooping, and when going up stairs. ─ Disposition to bury the head in the pillow, when sleeping. ─ Small swellings in the skin of the forehead, with bruise-like pain. ─ Moist scabs on the scalp. ─ Falling off of the hair (an the head and on the whole body), with pricking pain on the scalp, esp. on the occiput, with pale dropsical swelling of the face and body.

Eyes

Pain in the eyes, as if a nail were driven into the orbital margins. ─ Pressive heaviness in the eyes, in a downward direction. ─ Pupils dilated (one pupil larger than the other) without inflammation. ─ Involuntary fixedness of look on one single point. ─ Twitching in the levatores palpebrarum and the cheeks, with heat in the face. ─ Night-blindness. ─ Photophobia by day.

Ears

Shootings in the ears, day and night, with searching piercing.

Face

Face pale, sometimes yellowish. ─ Pale and œdematous swelling of the face. ─ Forehead wrinkled. ─ White vesicles on the lips, which are swollen. ─ The upper lip is cracked. ─ Soreness of the corners of the mouth. ─ Dull aching pain in the cheek-bone.

Teeth

Toothache at night, with shooting and tearing pains, < by cold and heat.

Mouth

Troublesome dryness in the palate, with incisive and scraping pain during deglutition. ─ Constant accumulation of saliva in the mouth, and salivation, with excoriation of the commissures of the lips. ─ Vesicles and apthæ in the mouth, and on the tongue. ─ Numbness and swelling of the tongue. ─ Pimple on the tip of the tongue, painfully stinging when touched. ─ Dry, white tongue (in the morning). ─ Bitter taste in the throat, < by eating.

Throat

Scraping feeling on back of palate. ─ Tiresome dryness on palate and cutting and scraping pain on moving the parts in swallowing. ─ Aching, sore throat on swallowing; feels excoriated.

Stomach

Nausea, sometimes with excessive hunger. ─ Speedy satiety, with repugnance as to rest of meal. ─ Has appetite, but on eating has no taste, and becomes suddenly nauseated, which ceases immediately after eating. ─ (Nausea of palate and throat.). ─ Nausea rising up from pit of stomach. ─ Nausea in whole abdomen, with frequent empty eructations. ─ Dislike to food, esp. meat, green vegetables, and saurkraut. ─ Green, blackish vomiting, with pains in the abdomen. ─ Heaviness, fulness, and inflation of the stomach. ─ Inflation of the epigastrium, with pain of ulceration, and impeded respiration. ─ Sensation of excessive uneasiness of the epigastrium. ─ Painful pressure on the epigastrium at every step. ─ Sensation of retraction in the pit of the stomach. ─ Painfulness of the stomach when coughing and walking. ─ Burning pain in the stomach. ─ Burning and scraping in the stomach.

Abdomen

Pinchings in the abdomen. ─ Sensation of coldness in the abdomen. ─ Heaviness in the abdomen. ─ Dropsical swelling in the abdomen. ─ Clucking in the abdomen, esp. on breathing deeply, as if there were water in the intestines. ─ Rumbling and borborygmi in the abdomen. ─ In r. inguinal region single pressures ending in a stitch, a sensation as if a hernia would ensue. ─ Severe hard pressure on middle of os pubis.

Stool and Anus

Tenesmus, with discharge of (white) gelatinous mucus, preceded by pinchings in the umbilical region. ─ Stools consisting of pure, tenacious, white mucus. ─ Stools like frog-spawn. ─ Diarrhœa, with pain in the abdomen, and nausea. ─ Watery and frequent evacuations. ─ Hard, scanty stool, during and immediately after which violent cutting, shooting in rectum, from below up, just as if it contracted tightly, and as if a body with cutting edges stuck there. ─ After an evacuation, burning hot smarting at the anus. ─ Feeling as if intestines had no power to evacuate fæces, during soft stool. ─ Involuntary stools. ─ Blenorrhœa of rectum with spasm of bladder. ─ Hæmorrhoids.

Urinary Organs

Frequent want to make water, with scanty emission. ─ Scanty urine, with sediment like coffee grounds. ─ Feeble stream. ─ Deep-coloured urine. ─ A large quantity of pale, watery urine is emitted.

Male Sexual Organs

Suppression of sexual desire, with flaccidity of the genital parts.

Female Sexual Organs

Pain under l. nipple, pains all over her, forced her menses on; had to get up at night to pass water. ─ Suppression of menses. ─ Amenorrhœa: from disappointed love; from damp feet, and getting wet through.

Respiratory Organs

Sighing respiration. ─ Breathes easier lying down. ─ Breathing difficult with anxiety, < every evening, must sit up. ─ Cough: dry, backing, < at night, with gagging; comes suddenly while smoking. ─ Suffocating constriction in the throat and nose. ─ Short, dry cough, with painful tension in the l. hypochondrium. ─ Difficult respiration, as from hydrothorax. ─ Accelerated, or deep and slow respiration.

Chest

Constriction of the throat, nose, and chest. ─ Heat in the chest.

Heart

Palpitation of the heart. ─ Anxiousness about heart which prevents him resting anywhere.

Neck and Back

Stiffness and painful sensibility of the neck and the nape of the neck during movement. ─ Swelling of the glands of the neck. ─ Contractive pain in the loins. ─ Gnawing and obtuse lancinations of the spine. ─ Pain, as from a bruise, between the shoulder-blades.

Upper Limbs

Tearing in the bones of the arms and joints, and in the upper part of the fingers. ─ Jerking in the muscles of the arms. ─ Piercing and shooting in the hands and joints of the fingers. ─ Want of strength in the hands. ─ Spasmodic stiffness of the fingers. ─ Humid, painless vesicles between the fingers. ─ Ulceration around the nails.

Lower Limbs

Violent lancinations, and burning pressure in the hips. ─ Pricking pain in the l. hip. ─ Want of stability in the legs, with yielding of the knees. ─ Stiffness and tension in the thighs and hams. ─ Obtuse and piercing lancinations in the joints of the knees, and of the feet. ─ Humid, painless vesicles between the toes.

Generalities

Shooting and piercing pains in different parts, and esp. in the periosteum, < by fresh air, corporeal fatigue, eating and drinking. ─ Pullings and tearing in the limbs. ─ Shooting pains in the joints. ─ Sudden relaxation of all the muscles. ─ The muscles refuse to perform their office, unless sustained attention be paid to them; staggering gait; suffering objects to fall which are grasped by the hand. ─ Convulsive twitching of the muscles (during sleep). ─ Relief is found in the open air, and sensations are felt as when recovering from a long illness. ─ All things have a freshness about them. ─ Convulsions. ─ Cramps. ─ Syncope. ─ Dropsical swellings. ─ Falling off of the hair and nails.

Skin

Paleness of the skin. ─ Miliary eruptions. ─ Leucophlegmatic swelling of the skin of the whole body; anasarca. ─ General desquamation of the skin. ─ The hair and nails fall off.

Sleep

Stupor, sopor. ─ Sleepiness, with eyes half open, and pupils turned upwards. ─ Confused, anxious dreams, the remembrance of which is not retained. ─ Sleeplessness. ─ Tossing in the bed.

Fever

Pulse, small, slow, almost imperceptible. ─ Shiverings, alternating with shooting pains in the limbs. ─ Chilliness predominates during the day, as long as he remains out of bed, with heat of the face and drowsiness. ─ Chill, with goose-flesh and pain in the joints. ─ The chill spreads from the arms. ─ Coldness of the whole body, and esp. of the extremities. ─ General shivering, with corrugated skin, and tenderness of the scalp when touched, and on moving the head; pullings and tearings in the limbs, lancinations in the joints, and absence of thirst. ─ In the evening, after lying down, burning heat throughout the body, and chiefly in the head, with internal shuddering and shivering, without thirst; dislike to liquids; when attempting to drink, very little can be taken at a time. ─ Nocturnal sweat, towards the morning. ─ After lying down in bed, the heat comes on immediately, generally accompanied by perspiration. ─ Heat followed by chill, with colic. ─ Cold, at times clammy perspiration.

The Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica

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

Mind

Total unconsciousness.
Weak memory.
When questioned answers slowly ; stupefaction bordering on insensibility.
Diminished power of mind over body ; cannot fix ideas ; slow in answering, stares unintelligently ; muscles do not act properly if will is not strongly fixed upon their action, as when spoken to, the attention being thereby diverted, she drops
things.
A perfect picture of acute idiocy.
Idiocy and cretinismus.
Dull, says nothing.
Delirium.
Mania demonic ; sees evil spirits at night.
Mania of a melancholy type, with fixed ideas.
Psychical conditions occupying a place between melancholia and mania, and in conditions where true depression and weakness is present, in which the patient is governed by a fixed idea.
An old woman having been accused of theft by the women around, took it so much to heart that she hanged herself. This suicide produced a profound effect upon the women of the village. One after another accused herself of having caused the death of the old woman
by their insinuations ; they wept and howled, ran about day and night wringing their hands and despairing of salvation on account of their sin ; they became quite irrepressible and deranged. In this way twenty-four or twenty-five women were affected, every fresh case being followed
by another. θ Hysterical mania.
Thoughtless staring.
Stares at her surroundings in a strange, stupid manner, and, if questioned, stares in the same way at one, or glances wildly about grasping her head ; when walking reels about, allowing her head to hang ; the sensorial apathy and constant staring at
one spot alternates occasionally with unintelligible muttering ; constipation. θ Melancholia after typhoid.
Constantly picking his lips and clothes.
Much lamenting, moaning.
Involuntary sighing.
Frequent screams in meningitis, or hydrocephalus.
Tries to escape, to throw herself into the river.
After typhoid, great mental dejection and apathy ; dull and indifferent to all external impressions ; will not speak ; sits quietly in bed and seems lost in brooding ; face pale, disturbed ; languid, unsteady glance of eye ; pupils dilated ;
pulse slow and weak ; will take proffered food but never expresses desire for anything ; sleep infrequent, restless ; constantly seeks to escape, but is not violent ; without a word quietly climbs out of window, and if she succeeds in escaping, goes in direction of
river ; finally threw herself into privy, from which she was rescued.
Stubborn silence.
Excessive anxiety and anguish.
Restless and anxious.
Dread of dying ; feels unhappy in presence of cheerful faces.
Melancholia in girls at puberty before menstruation has been established, or if menses have appeared and then failed to return.
Melancholy : silent ; during puberty ; with anguish.
Homesickness.
Woeful, despairing mood.
Indifferent.
Irritable ; easily made angry ; < from consolation, does not want to be disturbed.
A noise or shock shortens the attack. θ Eclampsia.
Thinking about symptoms lessens them.

Sensorium

Confusion of head, as if bruised, with fluent coryza.
Vertigo : with nausea, watery vomit and loose bowels ; while stooping, ceasing when becoming erect.
Dull and heavy in head.
Brain feels too large and occiput empty ; afterwards reverse in forehead ; occiput feels as if it would fall forward ; wants to lie down and roll head from side to side ; feels helpless as an infant.
Sensorial apathy.
Stupefied ; head hot, heavy ; boring head in pillows, chilly ; fingers cold.
Stupor, blunting of general sensibility ; vision unimpaired, nevertheless sees imperfectly and does not regard the objects he sees ; apparatus of hearing intact, yet hears nothing distinctly nor comprehends ; organs of taste in working order, yet
finds not the proper taste in anything ; often distraught, hardly remembers the past or what has just happened ; has no pleasure in anything ; slumber light and unrefreshing ; undertakes to work without having the power or strength.
All perceptions by the senses grow but slowly or not at all conscious. θ Typhoid fever.
Obtuseness of sensory nervous system. θ Brain disease in children.
Thorough unconsciousness ; all impressions on senses and all expressions of will wanting ; heart beat and pulse very slow ; skin only moderately warm ; bowels inactive ; involuntary micturition ; difficult swallowing ; constantly picking his lips and
clothes.
Sopor and coma.

Inner head

Violent pains in head, especially pushing out at forehead ; > only in getting head down and remaining perfectly quiet.
Heat deep within head.
Burning heat in head ; pale face ; cold hands.
Intense and intolerable pain in head. θ Spasms of children.
Shooting pains in whole head with giddiness. θ Anasarca after scarlatina.
A shock passes through brain, as from electricity, followed by spasms. θ Puerperal convulsions.
Pain in vertex as if a nail were driven in.
Pressing headache from within outward, with stupefaction and heaviness of head ; < on moving head, from exertion ; > in open air and from distraction of mind.
Stupefying headache : with coryza (4 to 8 P. M.) ; < from stooping ; > at rest and in open air.
Violent pressive headache, with great heaviness, < in occiput, on awaking.
Headache, stupefying, mostly in occiput. θ After scarlet fever.
Sensation in occiput as from a blow. θ Meningitis.
Stupefying headache in occiput, < on stooping, from nape of neck to vertex, changing to burning pain on rising to erect posture, > only by lying quiet with closed eyes.
Headache from nape to vertex.
Headache nearly always with scalp symptoms.
Congestion of brain.
Chills with vomiting ; sensation in occiput as from receiving a blow ; then flushed face, unconsciousness, delirium ; livid spots on body and limbs ; head thrown back ; neck rigid ; eyes rolled upward ; pulse 120 ; frequent convulsions. θ Cerebro-spinal
meningitis.
Inflammation of brain, with stupefaction ; heat and heaviness of head ; boring with head in pillow, with chilliness of whole body ; coldness of fingers ; < from thinking of pain.
Acute meningitis when exudation is completed ; reaction almost nothing ; paralysis more or less complete.
Hydrocephalus when fever has abated and following symptoms set in : difficult breathing, want of sensation, trembling and moving of hands towards head, squinting of eyes with insensibility to light, chewing motion of mouth, and sopor.
For a whole week has lain only upon back in apparent slumber, eyes half closed, pupils contracted, cornea and albuginea dim and dull, as if covered with dust, with dry mucus in corners of eyes ; eyes sunken, surrounded by blue circles, with squinting towards nose ; face pale
and emaciated ; nose pointed, orifices sooty ; lips dry and cracked ; body emaciated, with dry, flaccid skin ; epigastrium sunken ; lower limbs spread apart, legs flexed upon thighs ; on endeavoring to change this position, moaning, anxious, complaining
outcries ; face distorted with pain ; head sinks, helplessly back ; on forcing eyes open dilatation of pupils, spasmodic action of iris, the light falling into the eye making as little impression upon him as calling or speaking to him ; drinks eagerly, bites spoon without
being aroused from apathetic condition ; distorts face ; chewing motion of mouth ; grasps head with hands ; grinding of teeth ; cramps in muscles of back ; constipation ; involuntary urination ; partial sweat on scalp ; pulse slow, soft and
intermittent. θ Brain affection.
Inflammation of brain with moderate fever, pulse weak, not accelerated, with occasional deep sighing ; patient lies in an apathetic condition, cannot raise himself ; involuntary trembling of hands and grasping of head ; on being raised
head sinks back ; frequent rubbing of nose ; eyes half open, pupils dilated, eyeballs turned to side or rolled upward ; convulsive twitching of eyelids ; forehead wrinkled and covered with cold sweat ; no appetite ; desires only drink, which is eagerly taken in
large quantities, and is preceded and followed by chewing motion of mouth ; easily angered, especially after being kindly spoken to ; strikes about him ; face pale and bloated ; dulness and drowsiness ; frequently starts up shrieking and crying ; nostrils dry
and dirty ; dropping of lower jaw.
No sign of having sight or hearing, utters no articulate sound for two weeks. θ Acute hydrocephalus.
Concussion of brain from a blow on head ; pupils dilated, almost inactive to light ; pulse full, easily compressed ; could arouse him, but he would become drowsy again at once ; breathing heavy and slow ; especially < at 3
to 6 P. M. ; after Arnica failed.
Dropsy of brain : post-scarlatinal, acute or chronic ; mostly in scrofulous subjects.
Serous apoplexy.

Outer head

Boring with head in pillows, with sensation as if scalp on occiput were pulled down tight.
Rolls head night and day, moaning. θ Hydrocephalus. θ Typhoid.
Throws head back, and from side to side. θ Brain affections.
Sore feeling, as if bruised, < in back part of head ; > on stooping.
Occiput sore to touch.
Partial sweat on scalp. θ Hydrocephalus.
Hair falls off, with pricking on scalp, < on occiput ; face and body œdematous.
Humid scurf on scalp.
Scald head ; moist scales, with engorgement of glands of neck.

Sight and eyes

Vacant look, pupils dilated, eyes wide open or half closed. θ Typhoid. θ Hydrocephalus.
Eyeballs turned upwards, squinting. θ Hydrocephalus.
Eyes sunken, blue edges.
Nyctalopia.
Photophobia without inflammation.
Worse from light, particularly daylight.
Insensible to light. θ Hydrocephalus.
Hippus ; alternate contraction and dilatation of pupil, tremor iridis, after every attempt to arouse patient from stupor and especially if we move the head. θ Hydrocephalus.
Early stage of gutta serena.
Pupils : contracted ; dilated ; alternately contracted and dilated.
Eyeballs red, glassy. θ Hydrocephalus.
Cornea and albuginea dim, as if covered with dust. θ Hydrocephalus.
Cannot keep eyes open on account of heaviness.
Lids, sticky, dry, sensation as if they were pressed down.
Loses hair, from eyebrows.
Twitching in elevator of brows.

Hearing and ears

Roaring and ringing in ears.

Smell and nose

Smell diminished.
Nostrils look as if smoked, sooty. θ Hydrocephalus.
Nose pointed ; nostrils dirty, dry. θ Hydrocephalus.
Frequently rubs nose. θ Hydrocephalus.
Sneezing.

Upper face

Stupid expression. θ Typhoid.
Forehead or face wrinkled. θ Hydrocephalus.
Wrinkled forehead, bathed in cold sweat. θ Hydrocephalus.
Face : red ; hot, but pale ; flushes red and then becomes pale ; pale, œdematous ; distorted ; yellowish ; pale, sunken, icy-cold ; livid, with cold sweat.
Paleness of face with heat of head.
Twitching in levatores palpebrarum and cheeks, with heat in face.
Left-sided neuralgia ; parts so tender, cannot chew.
Dull pain in right malar bone.

Lower face

Constant chewing motion.
Corners of mouth sore ; steady flow of saliva ; upper lips cracked ; lips dry, cracked.
White blisters on swollen lips.
Sore lips.
Lower jaw hangs down.

Teeth and gums

Grinds the teeth.
When biting teeth together feels a pain near the roots in third molars, opposite each other.
Pricking toothache in molars, evening and night, can bear neither cold nor heat.
Toothache during the chill.

Taste, speech, tongue

Taste bitter.
Tongue : dry ; white mornings ; dry and red, previously black, in typhus ; slightly protruded and oscillating ; trembling ; feels stiff ; numb, insensible ; swollen ; full of vesicles ; pimples on tip ; yellow with red edges.

Inner mouth

Mouth and palate dry, with cutting, scraping in palate on moving mouth to swallow.
Vesicles in mouth.
Mouth, gums and tongue full of flat yellow ulcers, with elevated gray edges, or red, swollen bases ; carrion-like odor ; salivation ; will take no food except drink ; glands of neck and under chin swollen ; eruption of blisters around
mouth ; face red and hot ; stool watery and slimy, with tenesmus ; pulse feverish ; restlessness ; moaning and crying. θ Aphthæ.
Aphthæ, with lienteria.
Painless ulcer in mouth.

Palate and throat

Water rattles down throat.

Appetite, thirst. desires, aversions

Hunger : child nurses greedily ; with disgust for food.
Wants food occasionally, but rejects it when offered.
Thirst.
Greedily swallows cold water ; bites spoon, but remains unconscious. θ Hydrocephalus.
Thirst with disgust for drink.
Absence of thirst in all complaints.
Aversion to vegetables.

Hiccough, belching, nausea and vomiting

Nausea. θ Cystitis. θ Hydrothorax.
Nausea, yet hungry ; still food is repulsive although taste is natural.
Nausea during pregnancy.
Vomiting.
Nausea and violent vomiting, with much heat in stomach.
Vomiting of a greenish slimy substance.
Vomiting of greenish-black substances, with colic.

Scrobiculum and stomach

Intense burning in œsophagus.
Intense painful burning in stomach extending into œsophagus. θ During pregnancy.
Pit of stomach sunken. θ Hydrocephalus.
Fulness and distension of pit of stomach.
Pressing in region of stomach. θ Anasarca.
Burning and scraping in stomach.
Stomach painful when coughing or walking.

Hypochondria

Liver complaint, particularly after abuse of Cinchona.

Abdomen and loins

Sensation of coldness in abdomen.
Rumbling in abdomen.
Much rumbling in abdomen, excessive colic, debility.
Gurgling, as if bowels were full of water.
Excessive distension of abdomen.
Abdomen swollen, distended, painful to touch.
Griping, pinching about navel, followed by gelatinous stools. θ Ascites.
Excessive colic ; weakness, features sunken, face cold, pale, covered with clammy sweat ; pulse thready ; thin diarrhœa.
Ascites : especially after scarlet fever ; in scrofulous children.

Stools and rectum

Watery diarrhœa, nausea, colic a great debility.
Stool consisting solely of clear, tenacious, colorless mucus.
White, jelly-like mucus, with burning and smarting in anus ; diarrhœa preceded by colic, which is > after every stool.
White, gelatinous stool, like frog spawn is passed three or four times a day, with much pressure.
White, jelly-like stools with tenesmus.
Diarrhœa : during pregnancy ; during dentition ; during acute hydrocephalus.
Involuntary stools.
Diarrhœa and vomiting, with cramps in extremities, coldness of whole body, great thirst, altered features, weak, hoarse voice. θ Cholera.
Cholera acuta with heaviness and dulness of head, cramps in abdomen, fever, slow pulse, vertigo, nausea, watery vomiting and diarrhœa.
Feeling as if intestines had no power to evacuate feces, during soft stool.
Constipation.
Before stool : nausea and colic.
During stool : urging ; tenesmus ; nausea.
After stool : burning, smarting, at anus ; relief of colic.
Blenorrhœa of rectum, with spasm of bladder.
Hemorrhoids.

Urinary organs

Congestion of kidneys with extensive effusion of serum in abdominal cavity and tissue of lower extremities.
Dropsy after scarlet fever with albumen and fibrin casts in urine.
Suppression of urine, or urine highly albuminous, dark color, no sediment ; breathes easier lying down ; acute dropsies.
Nephritis causing dropsical symptoms. θ Syphilis infantum.
Bladder overdistended ; retention of urine from atony of muscular coats.
Cystitis ; the inflammatory process increases slowly to greatest violence, with constant desire to urinate, causing spasms ; little urine is voided ; constant nausea ; distended abdomen.
Yellowness of whole body, nausea with aversion to food, dry tongue, great thirst, abdomen painful and distended on account of enormous swelling of bladder, discharge of urine gradually became less, and for last three days ceased entirely ; after great pressure he passes, with much
pain, a few drops of blood ; lower limbs swollen and œdematous, swelling finally extending to abdomen ; whole body cold to touch, and in many places covered with clammy sweat ; pulse small and quick ; great restlessness ; introduction of catheter difficult on
account of great pain and sensitiveness of parts. θ Cystitis.
Bladder becomes paralyzed and greatly distended during pregnancy.
Irritation of neck of bladder threatening inflammation.
Passes blood and slime, with burning and stinging. θ Uterine complaints.
Frequent urging to urinate, with scanty discharge.
Constant desire to urinate, passing very little and of dark color. θ During pregnancy.
Spasmodic urging to urinate causing spasms.
Suppressed urinary secretion with dropsy.
Urine : scanty, dark, with floating, dark specks ; like coffee-grounds ; albuminous, scanty.
Dark urine, feeble stream.
Urine with dark sediment like coffee-grounds, top part is clear.
Coffee-grounds sediment. θ During complaints of pregnancy. θ Diarrhœa.
θ Amenorrhœa. θ Uterine dropsy. θ Spasms
of children. θ Hydrocephalus. θ Scarlatina. θ Dropsy
after scarlatina. θ Anasarca.
(In sick :) Large quantity of pale, watery urine.
Unconscious discharge of urine. θ Hydrocephalus. θ Typhoid.

Male sexual organs

Sexual desire suppressed ; genitals relaxed ; no erections.
Hydrocele after suppressed eruptions, either side.

Female sexual organs

Uterine dropsy ; secretion of urine almost suppressed.
Pain under left nipple, pains all over her, forced her menses on ; had to get up at night to make water.
Suppression of menses.
Amenorrhœa from disappointed love.
Amenorrhœa consequent upon getting feet damp, and getting wet through.
Menses absent for many months.
Voice weak ; speech unintelligible. θ Hydrocephalus.
Loses hair from pudenda.

Pregnancy. parturition. lactation

Puerperal convulsions.

Respiration

Sighing.
Breathing difficult, with anxiety, < every evening ; must sit up.
Chest constricted, gasps for breath, with open mouth ; propped up in bed. θ Hydrothorax.
Constriction of throat, nose and chest.
Suffocative attacks, as from constriction of lungs.
Maltreated pneumonia, with moderate fever ; breathing very difficult, anxiety ; torments most towards evening ; patient has to sit up.

Cough

Dry, < at night, with gagging ; dry, while smoking tobacco.
Constant hacking cough, appearing suddenly while smoking.
Tension in region of left short ribs during cough.

Inner chest and lungs

Inner Chest and Lungs
Sharp cutting in region of lower-most true ribs across chest, from within outward, < by inspiration.
Hydrothorax.

Heart, pulse and circulation

Anxiousness about heart, which prevents him from resting anywhere.
Pulse : often slower than beating of heart ; frequent, soft, intermittent in hydrocephalus ; small, wiry, in hydrothorax ; almost imperceptible ; rapid, small and tremulous ; slow.

Neck and back

Neck rigid, in spotted fever.
Cervical muscles stiff as far as occiput.
Cervical glands swollen.
Severe pain down neck, in left side of face and in teeth.
Cramp in spinal muscles. θ Hydrocephalus.
Pain as from stagnation of flatulence ; contractive pains.
Sudden amelioration in myelitis, with cold sweats which do not relieve, followed by symptoms of paralysis.

Upper limbs

Arms moving continually, automatically, except when asleep.
(In sick :) Frequent twitching in right arm. θ Hydrocephalus.
Complete loss of power of muscles in both hands, with numbness in arms.
Thumb drawn in to palm.
Boring, sticking in wrist and finger-joints.
Small vesicles on fingers of right hand, humid for a long time, and then covered with scurf.
Humid, painless vesicles between fingers.
Ulceration around the nails.

Lower limbs

Hip and knee-joints stiff.
Pricking in left hip.
Violent, somewhat slow stitches, as with several pins.
Needle-like stitches in left hip.
Inflammation of psoas muscle in a scrofulous case ; spasms in bladder ; burning and stinging when urinating.
Legs œdematous.
Legs drawn up, with every attempt to change her position. θ Hydrocephalus.
Boring, stinging in knee and foot-joints.
Weakness of feet ; tottering of knees ; he could only walk slowly ; numbness of both feet ; prickling in toes.
Humid, painless vesicles between toes.

Limbs in general

Involuntary throwing or whirling about of one arm and one leg.
Piercing in limbs, with uterine dropsy.

Rest. position. motion

Slides down in bed. θ Typhoid.
Lies on back, limbs drawn up. θ Typhoid.
Worse from bodily exertion.
Cannot rest anywhere on account of anxiousness about heart.
Has lain upon back for a whole week.
Lying quiet with closed eyes.
Lying down : breathes easier ; heat with sweat.
Wants to lie down and roll head from side to side.
Getting head down and remaining perfectly quiet : > violent pain in head.
Propped up in bed : chest constricted, gasps for breath.
Must sit up : on account of difficult breathing.
Legs drawn up : with every attempt to change her position.
Stooping : vertigo with nausea ; stupefying headache < ; sore feeling in back part of head <.
Standing erect : vertigo ceases ; headache >.
Motion : of head, < pain ; external head painfully sensitive ; chill <.
Moving head : hippus ; alternate contraction and dilatation of pupils.
Arms and hands moving continually.
Chewing motion of mouth.
Grasps head with hands.
Involuntary throwing or whirling about of one arm and one leg.
Boring head in pillow.
Throws or rolls head from side to side.
Can walk but slowly on account of weakness of feet.
Walking : reels about allowing her head to hang ; stomach painful.

Nerves

Great debility.
Heaviness of parts.
Sudden relaxation of muscles.
Want of bodily irritability.
Muscles refuse their service when not governed by strong attention and will.
Automatic motion of one arm and leg in hydrocephalus.
Convulsive twitching of muscles.
Spasmodic twitching in muscles of lower limbs.
Horrible convulsions, with extreme coldness.
Convulsions of sucklings.
Epilepsy, with consciousness, followed by deep sleep.
Rigidity of muscles of neck and limbs.
Traumatic tetanus.
Chiefly indicated when all reaction is past and we deal with the consequent paralysis.
Paralysis of detrusor ; œdema of legs ; vomiting of all he eats ; constipation ; sleeplessness ; despair of getting well.

Sleep

Drowsy ; when left alone, he goes to sleep.
Constant somnolence ; can be aroused, but not to full consciousness. θ Typhoid fever.
Soporous sleep, with shrieks and starts.
(In sick :) Starting with fright in sleep. θ Hydrocephalus.
During sleep muscles twitch.
Dreams : confused, anxious, cannot be remembered.

Time

Morning : tongue dry, white ; chill commences ; sweat with heat <.
Day : rolls head.
From 4 to 8 P. M. : headache with coryza.
Evening : pricking toothache in molars ; difficult breathing < ; burning heat all over body between 5 and 6 ; hot head and cold body.
Night : sees evil spirits ; rolls head ; pricking toothache in molars ; had to get up to make water ; dry cough <.

Temperature and weather

Worse from uncovering ; > in warm air or wrapping up.
Feels better in open air ; sensation as after a long illness.
Open air : headache >.
Getting feet wet and getting wet through : amenorrhœa.
Aversion to uncovering.
After getting out of bed : chill <.
Cold to touch : whole body.
Can bear neither heat nor cold.

Fever

Coldness over whole body, with cold hands and feet.
Pale, sunken face, loss of pulse, icy-coldness, cold sweat all over, so that a drop is on the end of every hair.
Chill in alternation with pain in joints.
General shaking chill, with goose-flesh ; painful sensitiveness of external head to touch and motion ; drawing tearing in limbs, and frequent sticking in joints, especially in elbows and shoulders ; without thirst ; commences in morning.
Chill spreads from arms ; goose-flesh, pains in joints ; face hot ; drowsy ; < after getting out of bed, and from motion.
Heat with shuddering.
Repeated attacks of, first heat, then chill with pains in abdomen.
Burning heat, followed by chill and colic.
Burning heat over whole body, especially violent in head, with internal shivering and chilliness, without thirst, in evening between five and six, and especially after lying down ; when he desires to drink, it becomes repugnant to him, and can
drink only a little at a time.
Internal heat of head with coldness of hands.
Hot head with cold body, towards evening.
Heat principally in head.
Fever with painful sensibility of head to touch and motion ; with drawing, tearing pains in limbs and stitches in joints.
After lying down in bed, heat generally with sweat.
Heat in evening and through day, as soon as he lies down, generally with sweat.
Heat or sweat, with aversion to uncover.
Sweat with heat, in bed, < toward morning.
Cold sweat.
Whole body covered with cold, clammy sweat.
Sweat : sticky ; less after sleep ; towards morning, temperature unchanged.
In consequence of catching cold after scarlet fever ; stitching pains in head ; vertigo ; pale swollen face unrecognizable ; loss of appetite, bitter taste in mouth, nausea after eating and drinking, gagging and vomiting with
relief ; constipation ; urine very scanty and brown ; no sweat ; skin hot and dry ; abdomen swollen, but soft ; great depression of mind, fears she will die ; sits about despondent the whole day.
Stupid expression, though face is not collapsed ; vacant look of eyes with dilated pupils ; constant somnolence, out of which patient may be roused, but does not gain full consciousness ; he stares at physician, is slow in comprehending and answering questions ; all
perception by senses grow only slowly or not at all conscious ; utters no desire ; when left alone sinks into slumber ; lies upon back with limbs drawn up ; sliding down in bed ; mucous membranes but little or not at all affected ; abdomen not bloated,
unpainful ; no diarrhœa ; sometimes unconscious discharge of urine ; slow action of heart ; pulse only 80 ; respiration slow ; temperature of skin nearly normal ; no miliary eruption ; no sign of putrid dissolution of blood ; loss of flesh
trifling ; only brain seems to be invaded. θ Typhoid.
Temperature 106. θ Typhoid.

Attacks, periodicity

Repeated attacks of first heat, then chill, with pain in abdomen.
Three or four times a day : white, gelatinous stool, like frog spawn.
For two weeks : no sign of having sight or hearing, uttered no articulate sounds.

Locality and direction

Right : dull pain in malar bone ; frequent twitching in arm ; small vesicles on fingers of hand.
Left : neuralgia of face ; pain under nipple ; tension in short ribs ; severe pain side of face ; pricking in hip ; needle-like stitches in hip.
Within outward : pressing headache ; sharp cutting in region of lower end of true ribs ; pain in forehead.

Sensations

Confusion of head, as if bruised ; occiput feels as if it would fall forward ; brain as if too large ; shock as from electricity passes through brain ; as if a nail was driven into vertex ; sensation in occiput as from a blow ; cornea as if
covered with dust ; as if scalp on occiput were pulled down tight ; as if eyelids were pressed down ; nostrils look as if smoked ; gurgling as if bowels were full of water ; as if intestines had no power to evacuate feces.
Pain : under roots in third molars ; under left nipple ; all over patient ; pain as from stagnation of flatus ; in joints ; in abdomen.
Violent pains : in head, especially in forehead.
Intense and intolerable pain : in head.
Severe pain : down neck ; in left side of face ; in teeth.
Great pain : in urinary organs.
Violent pressive pain : in head.
Drawing tearing : in limbs.
Sharp cutting : in region of lowermost true ribs across chest.
Shooting pains : in whole head.
Cutting scraping : in palate.
Piercing : in limbs.
Violent slow stitches : in lower limbs.
Needle-like stitches : in left hip.
Stitching pains : in head.
Stitching : in wrist and finger-joints ; in joints.
Pricking, tearing, pressing pains, running across affected parts.
Pricking : about navel.
Pricking pain : in molars ; in left hip.
Boring : in wrist and finger-joints ; in knee and foot-joints.
Cramps : in muscles of back ; in extremities ; in spinal muscles.
Griping : about navel.
Neuralgia : left side of face.
Contractive pains : neck and back.
Pressing pain : in head ; in region of stomach.
Burning pain : in head.
Smarting : in anus.
Scraping : in stomach.
Dull pain : in right malar bone.
Stupefying headache.
Burning heat : in head ; in œsophagus ; with pain in stomach ; in anus ; in urinary organs ; all over.
Sore feeling : in head.
Soreness : of corners of mouth ; of lips.
Sensitiveness : of urinary organs ; of external head.
Stinging : of urinary organs.
Prickling : in toes.
Dull and heavy : in head.
Constriction : of chest ; of throat ; of nose.
Tension : in left rib.
Heat : deep within head.
Anxiousness : about heart.
Heaviness : of head ; of limbs.
Numbness : of both feet.
Twitching : in right arm.

Tissues

Red parts become white ; anemia.
Great emaciation.
Loss of flesh ; aphthæ.
Hydrocephalus and kidney troubles after exanthema.
Diseases of serous membranes, approaching insidiously, rather as a sequel from some other diseases than as a natural termination of an inflammation of brain.
Acts especially upon kidneys and serous membranes, giving rise to dropsical effusions of brain, thorax, peritoneum and cellular tissue.
Dropsy : of brain, chest, or abdomen ; sudden swellings ; anasarca ; after scarlatina, nephritis, intermittents, etc.
Concomitants : debility, fever, pains in limbs, diarrhœa, suppressed urine, etc.
Anasarca and effusion into pericardium and pleura ; black urine.
Scarlatinal dropsy without much fever or pain in kidneys.
Face swollen ; respiration difficult ; urine blood-red. θ After scarlet fever.
Anasarca, ascites, hydrothorax, etc., and especially for acute dropsies where there is great weakness, drowsiness, fever, stitching pains in limbs, diarrhœa and suppressed urine.
Syphilitis infantum.
Stinging boring, in periosteum ; < in cool air.

Touch. passive motion. injuries

Touch : occiput sore ; abdomen painful ; painful sensitiveness of external head.
From a blow : concussion of brain.

Skin

Skin : pale ; yellow ; cold and clammy.
Skin peels off ; hair and nails fall out.
Livid spots on skin.
Miliary or humid eruptions.
Elephantiasis.
Repercussion of exanthemata.
Sudden dropsical swelling of skin.
Sudden severe chill, burning fever, headache, pain in all the limbs, pressure on chest, dry cough, unquenchable thirst ; after 36 hours face and body greatly swollen, pitting upon pressure ; dull headache, difficult in answering questions, cannot
concentrate his mind, low-spirited ; want of appetite, pressure in region of stomach ; frequent griping in umbilical region followed by urging to stool, with bilious mucous discharges ; frequent urging to urinate with scanty discharge ; great weakness ; pulse small
and slow. θ Anasarca.
Anasarca after scarlet fever ; urine dark, frequent and scanty ; stupefying headache, < in occiput ; pupils dilated.
Whole body enormously swollen on account of the œdematous infiltration of the connective tissue ; cannot sit up, lies in a drowsy condition ; complaining, dissatisfied when he is disturbed ; urine greatly diminished ; paleness of face and
body. θ After purpura.
Painless ulcers.
Itching unchanged by scratching.

Stage of life, constitution

During dentition, brain symptoms.
Weakly, scrofulous children.
Girl, æt. 5 weeks ; eclampsia.
Boy, æt. 15 months ; ascites.
Child, æt. 18 months ; aphthæ.
Child, æt. 2 ; aphthæ.
Boy, æt. 2 1/2 ; hydrocephalus.
Girl, æt. 2 1/2 ; brain affection.
Girl, æt. 2 1/2, weak and scrofulous, after purpura ; dropsy.
Small, weak, emaciated child ; aphthæ.
Boy, æt. 3, another 4 ; hydrocephalus.
Girl, æt. 6 ; cerebro-spinal meningitis.
Girl, æt. 8 ; brunette, brown eyes, lively temperament ; dropsy after scarlet fever.
Girl, æt. 17 ; amenorrhœa.
Girl, æt. 19, suffering for five weeks ; melancholia after typhoid.
Girl, æt. 20, after typhoid ; melancholia.
Girl, æt. 22 ; amenorrhœa.
Phlegmatic patient ; amenorrhœa.
Man, æt. 40, dwarfed, hunchbacked ; anasarca.
Nervous woman, æt. 42 ; neuralgia.
Man, æt. 47 ; sanguine temperament, three weeks ago had fever, which was treated with China ; cystitis.
Woman, æt. 50 ; anasarca and ascites.

Relations

Antidoted by : Camphor., Cinchon .
Compatible : Zincum (hydrocephalus) ; Bellad., Bryon., Cinchon., Lycop., Nux vom., Phosphor., Pulsat., Sulphur .
Compare : Apis, Apoc., Arsen., Canthar., Digit., Kali brom., Laches., Phos. ac .

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica

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

Lecture

Brain and mind: in all the complaints of Helleborus stupefaction occurs in greater or less degree. Sometimes it is a complete stupor, sometimes a partial stupor, but it is always stupefaction and sluggishness.

Hellebore is useful in affections of the brain, spinal cord, the general nervous system and mind, but especially in acute inflammatory diseases of the brain and spinal cord and their membranes, and in troubles bordering on insanity. There is a peculiar kind of imbecility or stupefaction of the body and mind.

The extreme state is unconsciousness. Complete unconsciousness in connection with cerebral congestion, or inflammation which has gone on to hydrocephalus, cerebro-spinal meningitis, or inflammation of the brain, with stupefaction.

Even early in the disease Hellebore lacks the wildness and acute delirium found is Stramonium and Belladonna. It is passive. Again, it fits in after the wildness of the delirium has passed away and, the patient has settled down into a state of stupefaction. The patient lies upon the back, eyes partly open, rolling the head, mouth open, tongue dry, eyes lusterless, staring into space. Staring at the individual talking. Waiting a long time to answer, or not answering at all.

Violent attacks of brain trouble frequently come to a sudden end, but those that are more passive linger, and that is where Hellebore comes in. The Hellebore case will linger for weeks and sometimes months in this state of stupefaction, gradually emaciating.

He lies upon the back with the limbs drawn up; he looks pale and sickly. When questioned he answers slowly. The text says:

"Stupefaction bordering on insensibility."

Another common expression is:

"Diminished power of the mind over the body."

The muscles will not act; they will not obey the will. It is a sort of paralytic state, but "stupefaction" expresses it. Cannot project ideas; cannot rivet the attention, cannot concentrate the mind. The patient appears semi-idiotic.

Delirium is not common, and when present it is muttering. There is more stupefaction, more "do nothing," more "say nothing," than delirium.

Yet there is evidently confusion of mind; he cannot think. In many instances, very late in the disease, the patient can be roused up, and he will act as if he were attempting to think, as if he were attempting to answer, attempting to move. But he simply stares at the doctor with eyes partly open, with a dazed expression on his face, and picks his finger ends.

When questioned the Hellebore patient is not able to tell you what he has in mind, unless considerably aroused and agitated. But when so aroused he will talk about spirits, or say that he sees devils. He sees in his imagination those images that he has read about, or seen pictured, as the devil, with horns and a tail. A young person who has never heard of the devil, or of spirits, would not have that form of hallucination in his delirium. The hallucinations are shaped in accordance with what he has been taught to imagine.

Hellebore has a peculiar quasi-hysterical condition - a form of insanity. She imagines she has sinned away her day of grace. Like Aurum, she believes that she is doing wrong, that she is committing an unpardonable sin. That is as near as the remedy approaches to insanity,

"An old woman having been accused of theft by the women around took it so much to heart that she hanged herself. This suicide produced such an effect on the women of the village that one after another accused herself of having caused the death of the old woman."

Child

The most striking type in Hellebore is the sick child. It comes in especially in children between two and ten years of age. The staring -lying on the back and staring with half-closed eyes, is typical of the remedy. Sometimes the lips move without any sound. The lips move as if the child wishes to say something, but on further questioning the words he wished to speak are lost, forgotten.

In hydrocephalus there is a sharp scream, the brain cry. The child will cry out in sleep. He will carry the hand to the head and shriek, like Apis. But the Apis hydrocephalus is far more active and acute.

The Apis patient kicks the covers off; this patient does not mind the covers, he does not mind anything. He is not easily disturbed. He lies upon his back with the limbs drawn up; often making automatic motions with the arms and legs. Sometimes one side is paralyzed, but the other keeps up automatic motions.

Hellebore is useful in the low form of disease known as "apathetic typhoid." These same symptoms guide to the remedy. Indifferent to all external impressions.

Rarely much disturbed by being touched, or by being covered too warmly, or by not being covered at all.

He does not seem to be sensitive to heat, or cold, or pricking, or handling or pinching. Listlessness. What is called in the text "stubborn silence" is more an apathetic silence, an inability to speak. It appears as if he refused to answer, but he does not; he does not know how to answer; he cannot think.

Fixed ideas in persons who are said to be just a little "off their balance," a little queer. And that fixed idea will stay; there is no use trying to argue him out of it. The woman gets a fixed idea that she is going to die on a certain day, and nothing can get it out of her head. This is not like Aconit, because there is no fear of death.

Aconite has fear of death and fixes the time of death. Fixed idea that she has committed some sin, which she will at times name and describe, or perhaps only mention vaguely - but it is very real to her,

Mind 2

When able to be about the patient appears to be sad, because she sits and says nothing, and seems to be in a woeful mood. But there is not that great lamentation, with walking the floor and wringing the hands that we find in Aurum.

It is an apathetic state; she appears sad and melancholy, whereas perhaps she does little thinking. Any attempt at consolation, so long as the patient is able to think, only aggravates the trouble. Like Natrum muriaticum, the complaints are aggravated by consolation, but the complaints of Natrum muriaticum are not at all like these.

If the Hellebore patient is able to meditate upon his symptoms, they seem to grow better.

Sometimes there are convulsive motions in this remedy, but they are more likely to be automatic. Motions that seem to have nothing to do with the will. He simply makes motions, like one moving in an absent-minded state.

The Helleborus patient is benumbed everywhere. The whole sensorium is in a benumbed state, a stupefaction, a blunting of general sensibility. The text says:

"Vision unimpaired."

Nevertheless he sees imperfectly; he does not regard the object his gaze is fixed upon; that is, his range of vision appears to be correct, yet if questioned a little as to what be saw, he has no recollection of it; it has made no impression upon his memory or his mind.

Vertigo and head

Vertigo, with nausea and vomiting. Vertigo from stooping. With the general stupefaction the head rolls and tosses. The child lies upon the back and rolls the head from side to side. The eyes are partly open, arid he keeps boring the back of the head into the pillow. This is partly unconscious and partly to relieve the drawing in the muscles of the back of the neck. These muscles keep shortening, as the disease progresses, just as they do in cerebro-spinal meningitis; until the head is drawn back as far as it can go.

There is burning heat in the head; shooting pains; pressive pains in the head from congestion. Violent occipital headache. Dull aching in the occiput; benumbed feeling in the occiput. A feeling like wood fullness, congestion and pressure.

The headaches, the motions of the head and the appearance of the face are those occurring in congestion of the brain. I have seen children, after passing through a moderately acute but rather passive first stage, lie in this stupid state, needing Hellebore for weeks before they received it.

When it was given repair set in; not instantly, but gradually. The remedy acts slowly in these slow, stubborn, stupid cases of brain and spinal trouble. Some. times there is no apparent change until the day after the remedy is administered or even the next night, when there comes a sweat, a diarrhea, or vomiting - a reaction.

They must not be interfered with no remedy must be given. They are signs of reaction. If the child has vitality enough to recover, he will now recover. If the vomiting is stopped by any remedy that will stop it, the Hellebore will be antidoted. Let the vomiting or the diarrhoea or the sweat alone, and it will pass away during the day.

The child will become warm, and in a few days will return to consciousness and then what will take place? just imagine these benumbed fingers and hands and limbs, this benumbed skin everywhere. What would be the most natural, thing to develop as evidence of the rousing up of this stupid child?, it is necessary for you to know this.

It is not really a part of the teaching of the homoeopathic Materia Medica, but you must know what to expect after giving this remedy.

Clinical observation

It is a clinical observation which you will - see if you see Hellebore cases, and Zincum cases.

Zincum is, if possible, even more profound in its dreadful state of stupefaction than Hellebore. Well, that child's fingers will commence to tingle. As he comes back to his normal nervous condition, the fingers commence to tingle, the nose and ears tingle, and the child begins to scream and toss back and forth and roll about the bed. The neighbors will come in and say,

"I would send that doctor away unless he gives, something to help that child;" but just as sure as you do it you will have a dead baby in twenty-four hours. That child is getting well; let him alone. You will never be able to manage one of these cases if you do not take the father into a room by himself and tell him just how the case will proceed.

Do not take the mother; do not tell her a word about it, unless she is an unusually excellent mother, because that is her child, and she is sympathetic, and she will cry when she hears that child cry; she will lose her head and will insist upon the father turning you out of doors.

But you take the father aside beforehand and tell him what is going to happen; explain it to him so he will see it for himself; and tell him that if this is not permitted to go on, that if the remedy is interfered with, he will lose his child.

It is not so much the awful pains, but it is the itching, tingling and formication that cause the appearance of extreme agony. Sometimes in every part of the child's body it is a week before all these symptoms go away of themselves but they will go away, if left alone.

All this will make you nervous. Do not stay and watch the case too long, because if you do you will change the remedy. I never heard of one solitary cure like, these in the hands of an Old School doctor,

The face has a very sickly appearance; sunken, gradually emaciating. It has a sooty appearance, just as if soot had settled in the nostrils and in the corners of the eyes. You will say that the patient is going to die. Quite likely without Hellebore. The remedy fits the kind of cases that the allopath knows nothing about and has no remedy for.

His prognosis is always unfavorable. The face, of course, expresses the mental symptoms. Wrinkled forehead, bathed in cold sweat. Paleness of the face and heat of the head. Twitching, of the muscles of the face.

We find that knitting of the brow and wrinkling of the forehead in just this kind of brain trouble. We find a similar kind of wrinkling in Lycopodium, but the trouble is in the lungs. In this remedy the nostrils are dilated and sooty. Nor much flapping, but extremely dilated. The eyeballs are glassy and the lids sticky.

There is violent thirst in these fevers, and unusual canine hunger. The nausea and vomiting are nondescript. In the early part of the proving there are diarrhoea and dysentery; with copious white gelatinous stool; stool consisting solely of pale tenacious mucus. And then comes paralytic constipation, and these prostrated, emaciated brain cases, such as described, will lie for days without stool, or any action of the bowels.

After a day or two they will not even respond to injections. Little, hard, dry stool. Again, when reaction comes, it very commonly comes with a diarrhea, or a sweat, or vomiting; perhaps with all three of these conditions.

The urine is retained or suppressed; sometimes it dribbles away passes unconsciously. Urine passed in a feeble stream; bloody urine.

The patient lies on the back, with his limbs drawn up; or slides down in bed. Great debility; great relaxation; the muscles refuse to act. Convulsions of sucklings. Epilepsy with consciousness. Traumatic tetanus. Constant somnambulism cannot be roused to full consciousness. Soporous sleep.