China officinalis
as William Boericke recorded it in Homoeopathic Materia Medica, 1927
This is one author on one remedy. The concise clinical Materia Medica that most Indian colleges teach from, in full. Read China officinalis in every book at once →
Mind
Apathetic, indifferent, disobedient, taciturn, despondent. Ideas crowd in mind; prevent sleep. Disposition to hurt other people's feelings. Sudden crying and tossing about.
General
Peruvian Bark-China Cinchona officinalis Debility from exhausting discharges, from loss of vital fluids, together with a nervous erethism, calls for this remedy. Periodicity is most marked. Sensitive to draughts. Seldom indicated in the earlier stages of acute disease. Chronic gout. Chronic suppurative pyelitis. Post operative gas pains, not relief from passing it.
Modalities
Worse, slightest touch. Draught of air; every other day; loss of vital fluids; at night; after eating; bending over. Better, bending double; hard pressure; open air; warmth.
Head
As if skull would burst. Sensation as if brain were balancing to and fro, and striking against skull, receiving great pain (Sulph; Sulph ac). Intense throbbing of head and carotids. Spasmodic headache in vertex, with subsequent pain, as if bruised in sides of head. Face flushed after hæmorrhages, or sexual excesses, or loss of vital fluids. Relieved from pressure and warm room. Scalp sensitive; worse combing hair. Aches worse in open air, from temple to temple. Worse by contact, current of air, stepping. Dizzy when walking.
Face
Sallow complexion. Face bloated; red.
Eyes
Blue color around eyes. Hollow eyes. Yellowish sclerotica. Black specks, bright dazzling illusions; night blindness in anæmic retina. Spots before eyes. Photophobia. Distortion of eyeballs. Intermittent ciliary neuralgia. Pressure in eyes. Amaurosis; scalding lachrymation.
Ears
Ringing in ears. External ear sensitive to touch. Hearing sensitive to noise.
Lobules red and swollen.
Nose
Checked catarrh. Easily bleeding from nose, especially on rising. Coryza, sneezing, watery discharge. Violent dry sneezing. Cold sweat about nose.
Mouth
Toothache; better pressing teeth firmly together, and by warmth. Tongue coated thick, dirty; tip burns, succeeded by ptyalism. Bitter taste. Food tastes too salty.
Stomach
Tender, cold. Vomiting of undigested food. Slow digestion. Weight after eating. Ill effects of tea. Hungry without appetite. Flat taste. Darting pain crosswise in hypogastric region. Milk disagrees. Hungry longing for food, which lies undigested. Flatulence; belching of bitter fluid or regurgitation of food gives no relief; worse eating fruit. Hiccough. Bloatedness better by movement.
Abdomen
Much flatulent colic; better bending double. Tympanitic abdomen. Pain in right hypochondrium. Gall-stone colic (Triumfetta semitriloba). Liver and spleen swollen and enlarged. Jaundice. Internal coldness of stomach and abdomen. Gastro-duodenal catarrh.
Stool
Undigested, frothy, yellow; painless; worse at night, after meals, during hot weather, from fruit, milk, beer. Very weakening, with much flatulence. Difficult even when soft (Alum; Plat).
Male
Excited lascivious fancy. Frequent emissions, followed by great weakness. Orchitis.
Female
Menses too early. Dark clots and abdominal distention. Profuse menses with pain. Desire too strong. Bloody leucorrhœa. Seems to take the place of the usual menstrual discharge. Painful heaviness in pelvis.
Respiratory
Influenza, with debility. Cannot breathe with head low. Labored, slow respiration; constant choking. Suffocative catarrh; rattling in chest; violent, hacking cough after every meal. Hæmorrhage from lungs. Dyspnœa, sharp pain in left lung. Asthma; worse damp weather.
Heart
Irregular with weak rapid beats followed by strong, hard beats. Suffocative attacks, syncope; anæmia and dropsy.
Back
Sharp pains across kidneys, worse movement and at night. Knife-like pains around back (D. MacFarlan).
Extremities
Pains in limbs and joints, as if sprained; worse, slight touch; hard pressure relieves. Sensation as of a string around limb. Joints swollen; very sensitive, with dread or open air. Great debility, trembling, with numb sensation. Averse to exercise; sensitive to touch. Weariness of joints; worse, mornings and when sitting.
Skin
Extreme sensitiveness to touch, but hard pressure relieves. Coldness; much sweat. One hand ice cold, the other warm. Anasarca (Ars; Apis). Dermatitis; erysipelas. Indurated glands; scrofulous ulcers and caries.
Sleep
Drowsiness. Unrefreshing or constant stupor. Wakens early. Protracted sleeplessness. Anxious, frightful dreams with confused consciousness on waking, so that the dream cannot be rid of and fear of dream remains. Snoring, especially with children.
Fever
Intermittent, paroxysms anticipate; return every week. All stages well marked. Chill generally in forenoon, commencing in breast; thirst before chill, and little and often. Debilitating night-sweats. Free perspiration caused by every little exertion, especially on single parts. Hay fever, watery coryza, pain in temples.
Relationships
Antidotes: Arn; Ars; Nux; Ipec. Compare:-Quinidin––(Paroxysmal tachycardia and auricular fibrillation. Heart is slowed, and the auriculo-ventricular conduction time is lengthened. Dose 1/2 grain t.i.d). Cephalanthus––(Button Bush-Intermittent fever, sore throat, rheumatic symptoms, vivid dreams). Ars; Cedron; Nat sulph. Cydonia vulgaris- Quince (supposed to be of use to strengthen the sexual organs and stomach). Complementary: Ferrum; Calc phos.
Dose
Tincture, to thirtieth potency.
What the other books say about China officinalis
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- China officinalis in Allen's Keynotes — The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours.
- China officinalis in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
- China officinalis in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
Search every book at once, take rubrics from Kent and Bönninghausen, and practise on a patient who answers back — free account.
Create a free accountCite this page. William Boericke. Homoeopathic Materia Medica. 9th edition (preface dated San Francisco, June 1927). China officinalis — Mind. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/boericke/china-officinalis. Published 1927: public domain in the US (since 2023) and in India (author died 1929). Reproduced as the author wrote it; a historical reference for students and practitioners, not medical advice.