Crotalus horridus
as William Boericke recorded it in Homoeopathic Materia Medica, 1927
Rattlesnake
This is one author on one remedy. The concise clinical Materia Medica that most Indian colleges teach from, in full. Read Crotalus horridus in every book at once →
Mind
Weeping mood; clouded perception and memory; impatient. Loquacious, with desire to escape. Sadness. Delusions of cerebral decay.
General
Snake poisons are supposed to be chemically Cyan hydrates of Soda and other salts. Alcohol is the natural solvent of these salts and is an antidote. Has a profound trophic action. Old age nutritional troubles. Low septic states. General disorganization of the blood, hæmorrhages and jaundice. A crotalin injection decreases the rate of coagulation of the blood. In epilepsy the average rate is far greater than in normal conditions. Blood decomposition, hæmorrhages (dark fluid that forms no clots), tendency to carbuncles, malignant scarlatina, yellow fever, the plague, cholera, give opportunity to use this remedy. Hæmorrhagic diathesis. Acts as a sedative. Sleeps into his symptoms. More right-sided in its action.
Modalities
Worse, right side; open air; evening and morning; in spring, coming on of warm weather; yearly; on awaking; damp and wet; jar.
Head
Vertigo, with weakness and trembling. Dull heavy occipital pain, on right side and right eye. Headache with pain in heart on lying on left side. Headache; must walk on tip-toe to avoid jarring.
Face
Acne. Lips swollen and numb. Leaden-colored and yellow face. Lockjaw.
Eyes
Very sensitive to light, especially lamp light. Yellow color of eyes. Illusions; blue colors. Ciliary neuralgia; tearing, boring pain, as if a cut had been made around eye. For absorption of intra-ocular hæmorrhages, into the vitreous, but particularly for non-inflammatory retinal hæmorrhages. Diplobia.
Ears
Auditory vertigo. Blood oozes from ears. Feeling of stoppage in right ear.
Nose
Epistaxis, blood black and stringy, ozæna, after exanthemata or syphilis.
Mouth
Tongue red and small, but feels swollen. Tongue fiery red, dry in center, smooth and polished. Moldy smell of breath. Fills up with saliva. Tongue when protruding, goes to right. Spasmodic grinding of teeth at night. Cancer of tongue with hæmorrhage.
Throat
Dry, swollen, dark red. Spasm of œsophagus; cannot swallow any solid substance. Tight constriction. Gangrenous, with much swelling.
Stomach
Intolerance of clothing around stomach. Unable to retain anything; violent vomiting of food; bilious vomiting, vomiting of blood. Constant nausea and vomiting every month, after menstruation. Cannot lie on right side, without
vomiting dark-green matter. Black or coffee-grounds vomiting. Cancer of stomach with vomiting of bloody, slimy mucus. Trembling, fluttering feeling below the epigastrium. Intolerance of clothing about epigastrium. Faintness and sinking at stomach. Ulceration of the stomach. Atonic dyspepsia. Gastritis in chronic alcoholism. Hungry, craves stimulants, sugar; averse to meat.
Abdomen
Distended, hot, and tender. Pain in region of liver.
Stool
Black, thin, offensive, like coffee-grounds. Intestinal hæmorrhage; blood dark, fluid, non-coagulable. Blood oozes from rectum when standing or walking.
Urinary
Dark, bloody urine. Casts. Inflamed kidney. Albuminous, dark, scanty (Merc cor).
Female
Prolonged menses. Dysmenorrhœa; pain extends down thighs, with aching in region of heart. Uterine hæmorrhage with faintness at stomach. Puerperal fever; offensive lochia. Phlegmasia alba dolens. Sensation as though uterus would drop out. Painful drawing in uterine ligaments. Cannot keep legs still.
Respiratory
Cough, with bloody expectoration. Tickling from a dry spot in larynx.
Heart
Action feeble, pulse tremulous. Palpitation, especially at menstrual period. Trembling feeling of heart.
Extremities
Hands tremble, swollen. Lower extremities go to sleep easily. Right-sided paralysis.
Skin
Swelling and discoloration, skin tense and shows every tint of color, with excruciating pain. Vesication. Sallow. Yellow color of the whole body. Great sensitiveness of skin of right half of body. Purpura hæmorrhagica. Hæmorrhage from every part of body. Bloody sweat. Chilblains, felons. Dissecting wounds. Pustular eruptions. Insect stings. Post-vaccination eruptions. Bad effects of vaccination. Lymphangitis and septicæmia. Boils, carbuncles, and eruptions are surrounded by purplish, mottled skin and œdema. Anthrax. Sore sensation relieved by pressure.
Sleep
Dreams of the dead. Starting in sleep. Yawning. Smothering sensation when awaking.
Fever
Malignant fevers of a hæmorrhagic or putrescent character. Low bilious remittents. Yellow fever. Bloody sweat. Cerebro-spinal meningitis (Cicuta; Cup acet). Cold sweats.
Relationships
Compare: Bothrops; Naja (more nervous phenomena); Lachesis (more markedly worse on left side); Elaps (preferable in otorrhœa and affections of right lung); Crotalus cascavella (thoughts and dreams of death. Paralysis of articulation, embarrassed stertorous breathing and semi-consciousness. A
magnetic state is produced; cutting sensation all around eyeball). Bungarus- Krait––(poliomyelitis). Antidote: Lach; Alcohol. Radiant heat; camphor.
Dose
Third to sixth potency.
What the other books say about Crotalus horridus
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Crotalus horridus in Allen's Keynotes — The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours.
- Crotalus horridus in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
- Crotalus horridus 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.
Create a free accountCite this page. William Boericke. Homoeopathic Materia Medica. 9th edition (preface dated San Francisco, June 1927). Crotalus horridus — Mind. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/boericke/crotalus-horridus. 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.