Theridion curassavicum

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

Theridion Curassavicum.

Theridion compares with Tarentula in headache, nervousness and hysteria. According to the provings, there is a similar restless, busy state; he desires to occupy himself, though he finds pleasure in nothing. But there is a strong distinctive characteristic in the sensitiveness to noise. This qualifies the vertigo, headache, and even the gastric ailments. Vertigo and nausea, worse when the eyes are closed, from motion and from noise.* Every sound penetrates the teeth. Every penetrating sound and reverberation extends through the whole body. Headache worse if others walk over the floor. I have relieved most intense headache with Theridion when this hypersensitiveness was present, as well as nausea and aggravation from motion. The general accompaniments are true spider-effects: Weakness, trembling, coldness and anxiety. Hysteria, too, has yielded to Theridion. Time passes too quickly; hilarity; talkativeness; feels as if her head did not belong to her, as if she could lift it off. Luminous vibrations before the eyes. Sensitive to light; if she looks into the light, dark vibrations are produced; double vision. Faints after every exertion. An- % xiety about the heart, with sharp pains through the left chest, or to the left shoulder. Bites the point of the tongue during sleep—all with weakness, chilliness, or easily excited cold sweat. Nausea and vanishing of thoughts, greatly intensified by closing the eyes. Theridion is very similar to Spigelia, which has sharp neuralgic pains over the left eye. Under Spigelia, however, the pain comes up from the nape of the neck and over the head, settling above 4:he left eye. The Spigelia sick headache is very apt to follow the sun, beginning in the morning, reaching its acme at noon, and gradually subsiding at sunset. The antidote to Theridion when it causes, this headache is Moschus.

Bryonia is at times very similar in headache. I once treated a lady suffering from intense headache and nausea that were worse from the least motion. Bryonia was given, but failed. However, when the patient added the fact that noises made both headache and nausea worse, I found the similimum in Theridion.

In headaches worse from jarring the floor compare Belladomia and Sanguinaria.

Another use you may make of Theridion is in the sea-sickness of nervous women. They shut their eyes to get rid of the motion of the vessel, and they grow deathly sick.

The spine is very irritable. We have what is known as spinal irritation. Examination reveals great sensitiveness between the vertebrae. *In vertigo worse closing the eyes compare Lachesis, Apis, Arnica, Piper methysticum, Arsenicum, Thuja, Petroleum, Chelidonium, Sepia. So great is this hyperesthesia that the patient sits sideways in a chair in order to avoid pressure of the back of the chair against the spine. A rather peculiar employment of Theridion, but one which I have had occasion to confirm, is its use in phthisis florida. It is claimed that the drug tends to stay, and in some cases stop, the rapid progress of this fatal affection. One symptom I know is good, violent stitches high up in the left chest through to the back. Dr. Baruch succeeded in removing this symptom with Theridion after other physicians had utterly failed.

Myrtus communis and Pix liquida vie with Theridion in pains in the upper left chest. The first has pain through to the shoulder-blade, a symptom which it often relieves, even in consumptives. Pix selects a spot at the third left costal cartilage, where it joins with the rib. (If it fails, consult Anisum stellatum, which affects either side at the third rib.) Rales through the lungs and muco-purulent sputum are further symptoms of the tar.

Dr. Baruch has also made use of Theridion in scrofulous diseases of bones, particularly after Snlpimr, Calcarea, Lycopodium and the ordinary remedies have failed. I think that it may even cure ozsena with caries, since it attacks the bones and so often removes the j^ellowish or yellowish-green, thick and offensive discharge from the nose.