European or American Hemp. N.O. Cannabinaceae. The flowering tips of the female plant of Cannabis sativa are used for making the tincture.
PATHOGENESIS.
CANNABIS SATIVA has the same general action on the system as cannabis indica; its difference are probably owing to its growing in temperature climates, whereas cannabis indica has its habitat in the tropics. It has a much less powerful influence on the mental sphere the fantastic illusions produced by cannabis indica being absent or only slight in this drug. With cannabis sativa things seem strange and unreal to the patient, he feels in a dream and is confused as to his personal identity, and sounds seem to come from a long distance. Blood seems to rush to the head from the stomach, there is vertigo and the forehead feels compressed. Pressure is felt at the root of the nose, in which there is a sensation of enlargement. An opening and shutting feeling occurs in the vertex, which begins on walking, lasts all day, and is aggravated by noise. There are noises in the ears. The eyes seem to be pressed forwards or spasmodically drawn in; the cornea becomes opaque. No marked symptoms occur in the stomach, but there are painful jerks in the abdomen, as if something alive is moving about in it (crocus; compare “snake sensation in abdomen” of cannabis indica); there is pressure as with a sharp point in the coccyx, and a feeling in the sacral region and rectum as if the intestines were sinking down and would be pressed out while sitting. THis latter symptom seems to be similar to the perineal “hard-ball-sensation-on-sitting” of cannabis indica.
The chief action of cannabis sativa is upon the genitourinary organs; there are drawing pains from the region of the kidneys to the groins, with nausea in the stomach pit (? epigastrium); burning and smarting in the urethra from the meatus backwards, with stitching pains in the posterior part while urinating (arg. nit.). The urethra is very sensitive to touch and pressure, it is sore long its whole length, so much so that the patient walks with his legs wide apart to avoid friction. Violent pains occur at the close of micturition from a spasmodic closure of the neck of the bladder. The urethra is sensitive and swollen, there are chordee and a mucous discharge, and oedema of the picture. In women there is much swelling of the orifice of the urethra and burning pain during micturition. Burning pains are felt in the urethra at the commencement, during, and after urination, and stitching pains are frequent when not urinating. Desire to micturate is frequent, and is caused by a burning in the fore part of the urethra. In both sexes there is sexual over-excitement. The menses are profuse.
Some oppression of the chest, dyspnoea, and a cough with hawking and difficulty in dislodging the sputum, which is green and salt, are the chief respiratory symptoms. Warm sensations, or a feeling as of drops of cold water falling from the cardiac region, are experienced.
Other symptoms of cannabis sativa are numbness of the finger-tips, a drawing pain in the tendo Achillis, “innumerable fine stitches all over the body, as from a thousand needle- points, at night when sweating from warm covering, relieved by uncovering,” a sensation of hot water being poured all over him, or as if drops of cold water were falling from the anus, from the heart or on the head.
THERAPEUTICS.
Cannabis sativa has been used almost exclusively for urinary troubles, especially for gonorrhoea, in which it should be given at the commencement, It is indicated by extreme soreness of the urethra, so that the patient walks with legs apart, by a moderate discharge of thick, yellow character and by oedema of the prepuce. But it can be usefully given as well in later stages when other drugs, such as aconite and cantharis, have subdued the first violence. The urethral symptoms resemble those of cantharis: with cannabis sativa there are more smarting and burning, with cantharis more tenesmus, phimosis, leucorrhoea in little girls, and for urethral caruncles. It is suitably used in threatened abortion, when this condition arises from gonorrhoea or too frequent sexual intercourse. Cannabis sativa has been used for hemicrania, coincident with too copious catamenia, and also to remove corneal opacities left behind after strumous ophthalmia. It has been recommended in asthma associated with bladder troubles, and may be useful in melancholia, associated with other cannabis sativa conditions.
LEADING INDICATIONS
(1) Great tenderness of urethra to touch and pressure
(2) Urethral discharge, thick and yellow, not copious: pyknuria.
(3) Burning and stinging in the urethra during, and especially after, urination.
(4) Gonorrhoea: non-specific urethritis.
(5) Urethral caruncle.
(6) Opening and shutting feeling of head, worse noise.
(7) Sensation of something alive in abdomen.
AGGRAVATION:
From touch and pressure (urethra): when urinating:noise a(head)
AMELIORATION:
From uncovering (skin stitches) lemon juice (which antidotes).
Edwin Awdas Neatby founded the Missionary School of Homeopathy and the London Homeopathic Hospital in 1903, and run by the British Homeopathic Association. He died in East Grinstead, Sussex, on the 1st December 1933. Edwin Awdas Neatby wrote The place of operation in the treatment of uterine fibroids, Modern developments in medicine, Pleural effusions in children, Manual of Homoeo Therapeutics,