Hyoscyamus niger
as H.C. Allen recorded it in Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica, 1899
Henbane
This is one author on one remedy. The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours. Read Hyoscyamus niger in every book at once →
Keynotes
Hyoscyamus niger
Henbane. Solanaceae.
Persons of sanguine temperament; who are irritable, nervous, hysterical.
Convulsions : of children, from fright or the irritation of intestinal worms (Cina) ; during labor; during the puerperal state; after meals, child vomits, sudden shriek, then insensible.
Diseases with increased cerebral activity, but noninflammatory in type; hysteria or delirium tremens; delirium, with restlessness, jumps out of bed, tries to escape; makes irrelevant answers; thinks he is in the wrong place; talks of imaginary wrongs, but has no wants and makes no complaints.
In delirium, Hyoscyamus occupies a place midway between Belladonna and Stramonium; lacks the constant cerebral congestion of the former and the fierce rage and maniacal delirium of the latter.
Spasms : without consciousness, very restless ; every muscle in the body twitches, from the eyes to the toes (with consciousness, Nux).
Fears: being alone; poison; being bitten; being sold; to eat or drink; to take what is offered; suspicious, of some plot.
Bad effects of unfortunate love ; with jealousy, rage, incoherent speech or inclination to laugh at everything; often followed by epilepsy.
Lascivious mania; immodesty, will not he covered, kicks off the clothes, exposes the person; sings obscene songs; lies naked in bed and chatters.
Cough : dry, nocturnal, spasmodic ; < when lying down, relieved by sitting up (Dros.) ; < at night, after eating, drinking, talking, singing (Bros., Phos. — > when lying down, Mang. m.).
Intense sleeplessness of irritable, excitable persons from business embarrassments, often imaginary.
Paralysis of bladder : after labor, with retention or incontinence of urine; no desire to urinate in lying-in women (Arn., Op.).
Fever: pneumonia, scarlatina, rapidly becomes typhoid; sensorium clouded, staring eyes, grasping at flocks or picking bed clothes, teeth covered with sordes, tongue dry and unwieldy, involuntary stool and urine; subsultus tendinum.
Phos. often cures lasciviousness when Hyos. fails. Nux or Opium in haemoptysis of drunkards. Follows : Bell, well in deafness after apoplexy. Aggravation., — At night; during menses; mental affections; jealousy, unhappy love; when lying down.
What the other books say about Hyoscyamus niger
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Hyoscyamus niger in Boericke — The concise clinical Materia Medica that most Indian colleges teach from, in full.
- Hyoscyamus niger in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
- Hyoscyamus niger in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
- Hyoscyamus niger in Boger — A compressed key — the generals and the characteristic modalities, with very little narrative.
Search every book at once, take rubrics from Kent and Bönninghausen, and practise on a patient who answers back — free account.
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Cite this page. H.C. Allen. Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica. 3rd edition (1910). Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. Hyoscyamus niger — Keynotes, pp. 139–140. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/allen/hyoscyamus-niger. Published 1910: public domain in the US (before 1931) and in India (author died 1909). Replaces B. Jain's 2005 "rearranged and classified" edition (© the publisher), per the owner's decision of 13 Sep 2026. Reproduced as the author wrote it; a historical reference for students and practitioners, not medical advice.