Aranea diadema

Lecture VI — Arachnida — Mygale, Lycosa tarentula, Tarentula cubensis, Aranea diadema and Theridion curassavicum

Aranea Diadema.

Aranea was suggested by Grauvogl as one of the remedies for what he called the hydrogenoid constitution, this being a constitution which could not tolerate moisture. Under Aranea all the symptoms are worse during damp weather or from dwelling in damp localities. Especially is this true with what we may call chronic intermittent fever, for which Aranea is the remedy when the symptoms are aggravated during every spell of damp weather. The patient may feel very comfortable on a sunny day, but as soon as it becomes damp he gets sick. During this aggravation he complains of chilliness, as if the bones were made of ice, bone-pains, followed by little or no fever. The chill is apt to be typical, occurring at the same hour every other day, every week, or at some regular period. You find also that the spleen is enlarged and the patient is subject to haemorrhages. He may or may not have been previously treated with quinine.

Cinchona and Chininum sulphuricum are both very similar to Aranea diadema in the periodical return of symptoms, and both are indicated in cases of swollen spleen, and of ague from living in damp places. Cedron, of which it has been asserted that it will relieve the bite of the rattlesnake and modify hydrophobia, may also be regarded as an analogue of Aranea diadema and of the spider-poisons generally. It is said to act best in nervous, excitable and even voluptuous patients, especially females. The febrile and neuralgic symptoms return with clock-like regularity. It is used in ague contracted in warm countries or in low, marshy lands, in which latter respect it offers some similarity to Aranea. But the former remedy has won favor mainly in hot climates, while the latter works well in chills contracted in cold and wet localities. The chill predominates, heat being slight or wanting. In Cedron, on the contrary, there is congestion of the head, flying heat in the face alternating with chill, and dry heat with full, quick pulse. So far as proved, Aranea does not develop the extreme excitation of the other three spiders mentioned above. Still there is evidence that it affects the nervous system. Confusion of the head and headaches lafter eating, relieved by smoking; headache ceases in the open air; sudden, violent pains in the upper and lower jaws at night immediately after lying down; restless sleep with frequent waking, always with sensation as if the hands and forearms were greatly swollen, as if they were twice as strong and large as natural, a symptom common to remedies that affect the cerebro-spinal nervous system. Aranea also cures diarrhoea, and these patients are often troubled with this disorder. The stools are watery, and are associated with great rumbling in the bowels, as if considerable fermentation were going on within.

The toothache is especially worse in damp weather, and also as soon as the patient gets into bed. Here it reminds you of Mercnrius. There is a symptom of Aranea which I have not had the opportunity of observing in practice, and that is numbness of the parts supplied by the ulnar nerve.

Arayiea also attacks the bones. It is especially indicated in disease of the os calcis when the patient complains of violent, dull, boring pain in that bone. This ma} 7 be due to a simple periostitis, or it may be associated with caries. Sometimes there is a sensation as if the bones felt like ice. This is purely subjective.