Thuja occidentalis
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 Thuja occidentalis in every book at once →
Mind
Fixed ideas, as if a strange person were at his side; as if soul and body were separated; as if something alive in abdomen (Croc). Emotional sensitiveness; music causes weeping and trembling.
General
Arbor vitæ Acts on skin, blood, gastro-intestinal tract, kidneys, and brain. Its relation to the production of pathological vegetations condylomate, warty excrescences, spongy tumors is very important. Moist mucous tubercles. Bleeding fungus growths. Nævus. Excess of venosity. The main action of Thuja is on the skin and genito-urinary organs, producing conditions that correspond with Hahnemann's sycotic dyscrasia, whose chief manifestation is the formation of wart-like excrescences upon mucous and cutaneous surfaces-fig-warts and condylomata. Has a specific antibacterial action, as in gonorrhœa and vaccination. Suppressed gonorrhœa, salpingitis. Ill- effects of vaccination. Sycotic pains, i.e, tearing in muscles and joints, worse at rest, better in dry weather, worse damp humid atmosphere; lameness. Hydrogenoid constitutions, whose blood is morbidly hydroscopic, so that damp air and water are inimical. Complaints from moonlight. Rapid exhaustion and emaciation. Left-sided and chilly medicine. Variola, aborts the pustule and prevents the suppurating fever. Vaccinosis, viz, inveterable skin troubles, neuralgia, etc.
Modalities
Worse, at night, from heat of bed; at 3 am and 3 pm; from cold, damp air; after breakfast; fat, coffee; vaccination. Better, left side; while drawing up a limb.
Head
Pain as if pierced by a nail (Coff; Ign). Neuralgia from tea (Selen). Left- sided headache. White, scaly dandruff; hair dry and falling out. Greasy skin of face.
Eyes
Ciliary neuralgia; iritis. Eyelids agglutinated at night; dry, scaly. Styes and tarsal tumors (Staph). Acute and subacute inflammation of sclera. Sclera raised in patches, and looks bluish-red. Large, flat phlyctenules; indolent. Recurring episcleritis. Chronic scleritis.
Ears
Chronic otitis; discharge purulent. Creaking when swallowing. Polypi.
Nose
Chronic catarrh; thick, green mucus; blood and pus. On blowing nose, pain in teeth. Ulceration within the nostrils. Dryness of nasal cavities. Painful pressure at root.
Mouth
Tip of tongue very painful. White blisters on side close to root, painfully sore. Teeth decay next to gums; very sensitive; gums retract. Drinks fall audibly into stomach. Ranula; varicose veins on tongue and mouth. Pyorrhea alveolaris.
Stomach
Complete loss of appetite. Dislike for fresh meat and potatoes. Rancid eructations after fat food. Cutting pain in epigastrium. Cannot eat onions. Flatulence; pain after food; sinking sensation in epigastrium before food; thirst.
Tea-drinking dyspepsia.
Abdomen
Distended; indurations in abdomen. Chronic diarrhœa, worse after breakfast. Discharges forcibly expelled; gurgling sound. Brown spots. Flatulence and distension; protruding here and there. Rumbling and colic. Constipation, with violent rectal pain, causing stool to recede (Sil; Sanic). Piles swollen; pain worse sitting, with stitching, burning pains at the anus. Anus fissured; painful to touch with warts. Movements as of something living (Crocus), without pain.
Urinary
Urethra swollen inflamed. Urinary stream split and small. Sensation of trickling after urinating. Severe cutting after (Sars). Frequent micturition accompanying pains. Desire sudden and urgent, but cannot be controlled. Paralysis sphincter vesicæ.
Male
Inflammation of prepuce and glans; pain in penis. Balanitis. Gonorrhœal rheumatism. Gonorrhœa. Chronic induration of testicles. Pain and burning felt near neck of bladder, with frequent and urgent desire to urinate. Prostatic enlargement (Ferr pic; Thiosinaminum; Iod; Sabal).
Female
Vagina very sensitive (Berb; Kreos; Lyssin). Warty excrescences on vulva and perineum. Profuse leucorrhœa; thick, greenish. Severe pain in left ovary and left inguinal region. Menses scanty, retarded. Polypi; fleshy excrescences. Ovaritis; worse left side, at every menstrual period (Lach). Profuse perspiration before menses.
Respiratory
Dry, hacking cough in afternoon, with pain in pit of stomach. Stitches in chest; worse, cold drinks. Asthma in children (Nat sulph). Papilloma of larynx. Chronic laryngitis.
Extremities
When walking, limbs feel as if made of wood or glass, and would break easily. Tips of fingers swollen, red, feel read. Muscular twitchings, weakness and trembling. Cracking in joints. Pain in heels and tendo-Achilles. Nails brittle. Ingrowing toe nail.
Skin
Polypi, tubercles, warts epithelioma, nævi, carbuncles; ulcers, especially in ano-genital region. Freckles and blotches. Perspiration sweetish, and strong. Dry skin, with brown spots. Zona; herpetic eruptions. Tearing pains in glands. Glandular enlargement. Nails crippled; brittle and soft. Eruptions only on covered parts; worse after scratching. Very sensitive to touch. Coldness of one side. Sarcoma; polypi. Brown spots on hands and arms.
Sleep
Persistent insomnia.
Fever
Chill, beginning in thighs. Sweat only on uncovered parts, or all over except head, when sleeping; profuse, sour, smelling like honey. Orgasm of blood in the evening, with throbbing in the blood-vessels.
Relationships
Compare: (Hydrogenoid constitution: Calcar; Silica; Nat sulph; Aranea; Apis; Pulsat). Cupressus australis (sharp, prickling pain; general feeling of warmth; rheumatism and gonorrhœa). Cupressus Lawsoniana (acts like Thuja; terrible pains in the stomach). Sphingurus (falling out of hair from beard; pain in jaw-joint and zygoma); Sil; Maland (vaccination); Medorrh (suppressed gonorrhœa); Merc; Cinnab; Terebinth; Juniperus; Sabin; Sil; Canth; Cannab; Nit ac; Puls; Ant tart; Arborin is a non-alcoholic preparation of Thuja. Antidotes: Merc; Camph; Sabin (warts). Complementary: Sabina; Ars; Nat sulph; Silica.
Dose
Locally, for warts and excrescences, tincture, or cerate. Internally, tincture to thirtieth potency.
What the other books say about Thuja occidentalis
The same remedy read by a different author. They disagree, and the disagreements are where the remedy becomes recognisable.
- Thuja occidentalis in Allen's Keynotes — The few symptoms that, when genuinely present, point at one remedy and not its neighbours.
- Thuja occidentalis in Farrington — Lectures that teach remedies in families, by comparing them with each other.
- Thuja occidentalis in Kent — Kent teaching a class, one remedy at a time — fewer remedies, far more on each.
- Thuja occidentalis 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). Thuja occidentalis — Mind. HomeopathyWorld, https://homeopathyworld.in/materia-medica/books/boericke/thuja-occidentalis. 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.