Helleborus niger

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 Helleborus niger in every book at once →

Mind

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

General

Snow-rose 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.

Modalities

Worse, from evening until morning, from uncovering.

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.

Face

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

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.

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.

Urinary

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.

Skin

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

Sleep

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

Relationships

(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.

What the other books say about Helleborus niger

The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.

Helleborus niger in Allen's Keynotes — The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours.
Helleborus niger in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
Helleborus niger in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
Helleborus 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. William Boericke. Homoeopathic Materia Medica. 9th edition (preface dated San Francisco, June 1927). Helleborus niger — Mind. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/boericke/helleborus-niger. 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.