Cicuta virosa

Flatulence with anxiety and crossness. Rumbling in. Distended and painful. Colic with convulsions.

Absence of thought, difficulty of recollecting himself, deprivation of the senses. Anxiety : violently affected by sad stories. Moaning, whining and howling. Tranquility of mind ; he was extremely satisfied with his position and with himself, and very cheerful (curative secondary effect). Likes childish toys : jumps from bed in a happy, childish state. Very violent in all his actions. Anxious thoughts of the future : feds sad. Anxiety: excessively affected by sad stories. Mistrust and shunning of men : despises others. Vertigo : staggering. Pressive, stupefying headache, externally on the forehead, more when at rest. Concussion of brain and chronic effects therefrom, especially spasms. Head bent backwards with convulsions. Violent shocks through head, arms and legs, which cause them to jerk suddenly : head hot. » Pupils first contracted, then very dilated Dilated and insensible. Convergent strabismus in children, if periodic or spasmodic, or caused by convulsions—blow or fall. Convulsions of facial muscles ; distortions ' either horrible or ridiculous. Lockjaw. After swallowing a sharp pieu of bone, or other injuries to cesophagus the throat closes, and there is danger of suffocation. Inability to swallow. Hiccough. Burning pressure in stomach, and abdomen. Throbbing in pit of the stomach, which is swollen as large as a fist. Sudden shock in pit of stomach which causes opisthotonos. Distension and painfulness of abdomen. Colic with convulsions and vomiting. Frequent call to urinate. Trembling palpitation of heart. Feels as if heart stopped beating ; sometimes faint feeling therewith. Tension or cramp in muscles of neck : if he turns head, cannot easily turn it back again. Pain in nape, spasmodic drawing of head backwards, with tremor of hand. The back bent backwards like an arch. Painful sensation on inner surface of scapula. Complete powerlessness of limbs, after spasmodic jerks. Frequent involuntary jerking and stitches in arms and fingers. A red vesicle on right scapula, very, painful when touched. General convulsions. Epilepsy. Frightful epilepsy. Frightful distortion of the limbs and whole body. Convulsions with wonderful distortion of limbs ; head turned backwards, back bent as in opisthotonos. Frightful convulsions. (.Epileptic fits, with swelling of stomach, as from violent spasm of the diaphragm.) Hiccough : screaming : redness of face : trismus. Loss of consciousness, and distortion of limbs. Tonic spasm renewed from slightest touch: opening door; loud talking. An elevated eruption over whole face {and on both hands, as big as peas) which causes a burning pain when touched* Vivid dreams about events of day. Vivid unremembered dreams. Frequent waking out of sleep, in which he perspired all over, but from which he felt strengthened. They all wish to come near the warm stove. * Hahnemann says, " I have cured chronic pustular, confluent eruption on the face, with only a burning pain, with one or two doses of a small portion of a drop of the juice, but did not venture to administer a second dose under three or four weeks, if the first was not sufficient.’ ’ Important Italic Symptoms : Queer Symptoms Aberration of mind, singing, performing most grotesque dancing steps, shouting. Represented to himself as dangerous everything that would happen to him. Feels as if he were in a strange place. {Opium—Comp. Bry.) He did not think he was living in ordinary conditions : every­ thing appeared strange and almost frightful. . . . Depreciation and contempt of mankind : fled from his fellows : was disgusted with their follies. Want of trust in people and anthropophobia : suspicious. Or,—he felt like a child of seven or eight years old, objects were very dear and attractive to him, as toys are to a child. Keeps staring : at the same place ; cannot help doing so. Has not full command of her senses . . . if she compels herself forcibly, by turning away her head, to cease having her eyes directed on the object, she loses consciousness, and all becomes black before eyes. Staring look. Stares with unaltered look at one and the same place. Suddenly consciousness returns and she remembers nothing of what has occurred. Vertigo. Objects seem to move in a circle :—to move hither and thither, though they retain their right shape. Must seat herself more firmly, because she sees nothing firm or steady about her ; thinks she is herself unsteady. Imagines she is swaying : everything swings backwards and forwards like a pendulum. When she has to stand still, she wishes she could lay hold of something : objects seem to come near, and then recede again from her. Falls to the ground : falls and rolls about. Neck feels stiff and muscles too short. Most violent tonic spasms, so that neither the curved limbs could be straightened, nor the straight limbs curved. Head retracted or bent forward and stiff. Heart seems to stop. Jerking of head. As if throat had grown together. Walks with feet turned inward, swings feet with each step, describing the arc of a circle. Thumbs turned inward during epilepsy. In epilepsy, spasm renewed from slightest touch or jar. {Nux, Strych., Bell.) On waking, brain feels loose and shaking. Useful after concussion of brain : after wounding oesophagus, where there is spasm that prevents swallowing. [Although the epileptic and other convulsions are very violent, yet many of the symptoms suggest petit mal.) ” Acts particularly on the nervous system : a çerebro-spinal irritant, producing tetanus, epileptic and epileptiform convulsions, trismus and local tonic and clonic spasms in general.” * * * Kent says, “ This remedy is of most extreme interest because of its convulsive tendency. It puts the whole nervous system into such a state of increased irritability that pressure on a part causes convulsions. " Convulsions extend from centre to circumference. The convulsions spread from above downwards, and thus it is the opposite of Cuprum. The convulsions of Cup. spread from the extremities to the centre : the little convulsions, cramps, are first felt in fingers, then hands, later in chest and whole body. In Cicuta the little convulsions of head, eyes and throat spread down the back with violent contortions. ” Read the mental symptoms : at times knows no one, but when touched and spoken to answers correctly. Suddenly consciousness returns and he remembers nothing of what has occurred. . . . Imagines himself a young child : everything is confused and strange. Voices—places—strange. After cata­ leptic state feels like a child and acts like one : plays with toys. Memory a blank for hours or days, with or without convulsions. (Nat. mur.) Nux mosch, is another remedy that has such a complete blank when going about, doing things. “ Wants to eat coal—raw potatoes. " Between the convulsions the patient is mild, gentle, placid, yielding, reverse of Nux and Strych. Nux has convulsions all over the body, worse for touch and draught, blueness : but, between the convulsions the patient is very irritable. . . . " Complaints brought on from injuries to skull, blows on the head. . . . Mind and head symptoms after injuries. . . . Cerebro-spinal meningitis. . . . Has cured epithelioma of lips. After swallowing a fishbone, etc., a spasm comes on. After Cicuta the spasm will cease and it can be taken out. " Barber’s itch : troubles from shaving.” * * * One wonders why one has not made more use of Cicuta, after one of the amazing experiences of a lifetime. One has recently Alter wringing the dollies, ana nangmg tnem up to ary, «007 " Now I am dead tired. I'm going to bed. Mother doesn’t 268C1CUTA VIROSA want me to, but my nerves are going like that, and I ’m dead tired !” No medicine. In seventeen months— Understands that her Sunday School teacher is dead. Said, “ She’s gone, and we shall not see her any more.” Never men­ tioned her again. No medicine. In nineteen months— Mother wrote up, ” 111, and ten fits.” Sent Cicuta 200, one dose. Two years later— Several rather bad fits. Cicuta 200, one dose. Three years later— Had been ill with ’flu ; ten bad fits one night. Otherwise well. Washes up. Cleans the doorstep. Goes shopping. Cicuta 200, one dose. Then for some six months—No fits. After four years— Mother says, " She speaks in proverbs now ! She said, ‘ What is it, Mother, when your nose itches like this ? ' ” No medicine. In five years— Mends her clothes. Does all the mangling and hangs the clothes out. Remembers where she has put things. Has been seen since, at very long intervals. It was a pleasing and illuminating case. Excitement or sickness may bring on an attack. But a girl of 23, with less than the mentality of a baby, unable to say when she wanted food, let alone to wash or dress herself, was quickly transformed into a useful and fairly intelligent member of society by a very few single doses of Cicuta, in the 200 potency. * * * One thinks of Cicuta for extreme violence of convulsions : but, as said, it has all the symptoms of petit mal : and one might have made use of Cicuta here, and saved oneself a lot of trouble : for really these petit mal cases are often more difficult than the major attacks. Looking up that old wonderful case the other day, led to the prescription of Cicuta in another equally difficult and seemingly hopeless case. It was this. A thin slip of a ” girl ”, nearly 40 years old. Practically an epileptic idiot since a fall at 12 years old, which rendered her unconscious. Had had a previous fall as a baby, which left a “ deni; on the top of her head ”. (Has a queer shaped skull, with a deep dent, wide, running back from vertex.) Makes extraordinary noises before some of the fits, or falls without noise : enuresis in fits. She had very frequent major attacks, minor attacks also, " silent fits Skin troubles also. Her symptoms suggested Sulphur, which gave a terrible aggravation, then she improved, to a point. But still a great number of fits : and also shrieking fits. Better and worse, without really much change, till January 29th, 1937. Cicuta 30, one dose. In a month the report is, “ Ever so much better : two weeks since the last fit—her longest period without. A different creature : now takes interest in everything. Takes interest in her clothes now. Looks better. Has put on weight.” Why did she not get Cicuta before ? ♦ * * The Cychpeedia of Drug Pathogenesy gives cases of poisoning by Cicuta. Here is one. A healthy man of 20 ate of the root, and was soon ill. He went out and was soon afterwards found stretched on the ground, and as if dying. Face congested : eyes protruded ; foamed at mouth ; scarcely breathed. Soon a violent epileptic attack occurred, during which all the limbs in succession were horribly contorted, the breathing interrupted. He never recovered consciousness and soon died. Another :—a child of 6 soon complained of pain in précordia and fell to the ground and passed urine with great force. He looked fearfully ill ; all his senses left him ; he shut his mouth so strongly that it could not be opened, ground his teeth. Eyes much distorted, blood gushed from his ears and a large swelling formed about the precordial region. Hiccough : attempts to vomit. He threw his limbs about and contorted them, the head was often thrown back and the whole back bent in the form of a bow. The con­ vulsions ceased and he cried to his mother for help, but they returned with renewed intensity, he could not be roused by calling to him : and in half an hour he died . . . And so on with other cases. In one case of proving given, among a host of symptoms, the stools had this peculiarity, that without premonitory symptoms they suddenly came on with urging so severe that they could hardly be kept back, with bruised pain in sacrum and general weakness. Then, almost every hour a stool of black carrion­ smelling mucus in large quantity, with straining. . . . When walking, suddenly a peculiar feeling as if the heart stopped. . . . etc., etc. CIMICIFUGA RACEMOSA {ACTEA RACEMOSA) {Black Cohosh. Black Snake-root) Some confusion may arise because of the different names applied to this remedy, and" therefore the different parts of Materia Medica where it is to be sought. Hughes says he prefers to call it by its Linnaean name— Actea. Hering {Guiding Symptoms) has it as Actea: he says, “ It has received so many improper names that the oldest is preferred". Clarke, H. C. Allen, Kent and Guernsey call it Actea : Nash, Boericke, Boger, Cimicifuga, which name is more familiar. Allen also, in the Encyclopedia, has it under Cimicifuga. It seems strange that we should never before have tried to Drug-picture cim icifuga : one of the remedies so very useful to physicians brought up on Hughes, rather than on Hahnemann pure and simple,—that painstaking experimentalist and recorder, whose genius, so far as we have seen, is not improved by modifica­ tion, or in need of apology. Hughes’ Pharmacodynamics, excellent in its way, got the nickname “ Homoeopathic Milk for Allopathic Babes ", for his great object was, evidently, to reconcile Homoeo­ pathy, or at least to make' it acceptable, to Old School practitioners of his day. But Old School has recently made great strides in its basal conceptions : so much so that the Doctrines of Hahne­ mann are found to be rather explanatory than antagonistic to present-day thought, and are quite easily swallowed by the latest qualified : indeed we hear that already it is being said among the science teachers of one of the medical schools, “ Homoeopathy is the coming medicine ”. But the strong meat as well as the milk of Homoeopathy remain not easy of digestion to most of the older men, some of whom shrink from all this new study “ at their time of life ” , which means so much unlearning and relearning, not only in regard to prescribing, but the plunge into that vast, unknown Materia Medica homoeopathica. . . . " If I had only come across this forty years ago ! " But the more earnest seekers after truth, the rebellious against ineptitude, are finding in Homoeopathy the explanation of many difficulties, doubts and misgivings : a something that goes deeper than mere palliation ; and proves that good work can be done apart from the daring and often dangerous experimentation of the laboratories. More­ over Homoeopathy leaves them no longer subject to the temptations and dictates of the manufacturing chemists, whose samples pour in by every post, to be tried and adopted for further experiment on a hit, or discarded as useless on a miss. Do such things belong to the Reign of Law ?—to any Science of Medicine : that Inspiration to which Hahnemann dedicated his life, and for which he wrestled with God and nature during all those long, weary years ? Are they not merely a counsel of despair : a terrible acknowledgment of ignorance and failure ? But, to go back to Cimicifuga : Nerve, or nerve and muscle—myalgias—seem to be the very special sphere of Cimicifuga : as a very interesting case quoted by Dr. Hughes exemplifiés. The drug attacks eyes, in a marked degree, but, it is pointed out, that it is through the eye muscles. As Boger gives it, in arresting type, “ n erv es and m uscles, Cerebro-spinal, Eyeballs, Ovario-uterine, Heart ” and, like Caubphylum, “ in females ”, joints. And everywhere it is better for warmth in every form ; for open air ; for pressure, and for continued motion. It is a remedy of crazy feelings, of chorea, and one of the remedies that affect especially, uterus and all the conditions dependant on uterine abnormalities of function. . . . It is a rheumatic, choreaic, spasmodic, hysterical and uterine remedy. It reminds one, as one reads, now of Ignatia, now of Gelsemium, now, as said, of Caulophylum, now of Lachests. A very useful drug for more or less superficial conditions—though it has also a reputation in phthisis. Among its contradictory symptoms are its ” relief from flow ” —bowels, uterus, etc., yet its aggravation during menstruation. Its relief from flow reminds one of Sepia, Loch., Zinc. One thinks of Cimicifuga especially in stiff neck and sciatica,— (provided that these are not dependent on small displacements, and therefore only amenable to manipulation) ; in chorea ; in hysteria : as well as in obscure conditions, such as the myalgia of diaphragm, to which Hughes draws attention. Hering, stressing the importance of provings on men and women of the various drugs, shows that in provings by six women, Cimicifuga produced nausea, vomiting and much gastric irritation; while in forty men, it hardly affected the stomach in the least. He says, being an important remedy in morning sickness of the pregnant, we may conclude that all the gastric symptoms observed by female provers depended on the uterus. He says further, that it has been observed that Cuprum acts more on the female, and Ferrum on the male organs. Thinks she is going crazy. Mania following disappearance of neuralgia. Puerperal mania. Incessant talking, changing from one subject to another. Feels grieved and troubled, with sighing : next day a feeling of tremulous joy, with mirthfulness, playfulness and clear intellect. Fear of death. Fullness and aching in vertex. Severe pains right side of h ead, back of orbit. Brain as if too large ; presses from within outwards. Dull constant pain, especially occiput, extending to vertex. A pressing upwards and outwards, as if not room enough in upper portion of cerebrum : this pain was very oppressive and almost intolerable. A sense of soreness in occipital region, worse motion. nausea. Retching, dilated pupils, tremor of limbs. Aching pain in both eyeballs. Sharp pain across hypogastrium. ABDOMINAL m uscles SOTC. Pains in u terin e region, dart from side to side. Menses irregular, delayed or suppressed, with chorea, hysteria, or mental disease. Shivers, of first stage of labour. Infra-mammary pains, worse left side. Night cough, dry, incessant, short. Head and neck retracted. Rheumatic pains in muscles of neck and back ; feeling of stiffness. A severe drawing, tensive pain at the points of the spinous Processes of the three upper dorsal vertebra. Excessive muscular soreness. Rheumatic persons. Curious, Distinguishing or Italic Symptoms As if a black cloud had settled all over her, and enveloped her head, so that all was darkness and confusion : it weighed like lead on her head. Waving sensation in the brain. Startled by the illusion of a mouse running from under her chair. Imagines strange objects about the bed : rats, sheep, etc. Fear of death : fears those in the house will kill him. Would not answer, or very loquacious at times. Mental depression, suicidal, after checked neuralgia. Suspicious ~of everything, would not take medicine. Mind disturbed by disappointed love, business failures, etc. Feels faint at epigastrium when meeting a friend. Rush of blood to head : brain feels too large for cranium. Waving sensation. Opening and shutting sensation when moves head and eyes. Top of head feels as if it would fly off. As if vertex opened and let in cold air. Sensation of enlargement, eyeballs, as if they would be pressed out. As if needles were run into left eyeball through cornea. Coppery taste. Cannot speak a word though she tried. Dry spot in throat causes cough. Alternate diarrhoea and constipation. Shivers in the first stage of labour • during menses. Puerperal mania : does not know what is the matter with her head : clutches it. Screams, clutches at breast as though in pain : tries to injure herself. Acute pain, apex to base of right lung, worse inspiration. Angina pectoris : pain heart region, all over chest and down left arm : palpitation ; unconsciousness, cerebral congestion, dyspnoea, face livid, cold sweat hands ; numbness of body : left arm numb and as if bound to side. (Cured case, Hering.) Heart's action ceases suddenly ; impending suffocation. A heavy black cloud had settled all over her : weighed like lead on her heart. Stiff neck from cold air, with pain from moving hands. Weight and pain, lumbar and sacral, sometimes extending all round the body. Severe pain in back, down thighs and through hips, with heavy pressing down. Severe pain down arms, with numbness as if a nerve were pressed. Left arm feels as if bound to side. Cold sweat on hands. Must change position, to quiet jerking, in bed. Can scarcely walk, from trembling of legs. Must walk about, when restless and impatient. Going upstairs aggravates feeling as if top of head would fly off.