Pulsatilla


Dr. S.R. Phatak describes the clinically confirmed symptoms of the homeopathic remedy Pulsatilla in his Concise Materia Medica, published in 1977….


Generalities

      On account of its CHANGING; SHIFTING SYMPTOMS this remedy is known as a weather cock remedy. It affects the MIND; VEINS; MUCOUS MEMBRANES; respiration and one side. Symptoms rise to a certain pitch, then suddenly cease. It is a remedy for females, of mild, gentle, plethoric, yielding disposition, who cry readily and weep when talking. Symptoms appear on one side or go to side lain on. THIRSTLESSNESS; CHILLINESS AND SHORTNESS OF BREATH; with digestive or menstrual disorders. Chilliness; with pains but burning, with stitching pains; with numbness. MUCOUS DISCHARGES ARE PROFUSE; BLAND, THICK; YELLOWISH-GREEN. Changing and contradictory symptoms; having no head or tail to them. Alternations. Metastasis. Haemorrhages; passive; vicarious; blood dark, easily coagulating. Venosity, varicose veins. Heaviness. Scraping, jerking, tearing, ulcerative pains; wandering pains. Numbness; partial; hands, feet etc.; of the part lain on; of suffering parts. Ill effects of SUPPRESSIONS, otorrhoea, menses, lochia, milk etc. Eating ice-cream; pork, fats; pastry; mixed diet. Chilly but craves for open air. Pale chilly blondes. Anaemia. Never well since puberty. Chorea; from amenorrhoea or dysmenorrhoea. The longer he lies in the morning the longer he wishes to lie. Cannot lie with head low. Child wants to be carried slowly. Symptoms in distant parts of the body cause dyspnoea. Sensation of distension in size, as if one part or every part were growing too large; during pain. Bandaged sensation. Wearing of flannels or woolen clothes cause itching and eruptions. Prophylactic for measles. Epilepsy with absent or irregular menses. Emaciation of suffering parts. Pulsation through whole body.

Worse

      WARMTH, OF AIR; OF ROOM; Clothes; BED. Getting feet wet. EVENING. REST. BEGINNING MOTION. LYING, on one side (left). EATING; long after, RICH FOODS, fats, ices, eggs. PUBERTY. PREGNANCY. Before menses. Iron. Quinine. Hanging down limbs. Tea. Thunderstorms. Sun. Twilight.

Better

      COLD; FRESH, OPEN AIR; food, drinks. Uncovering. Gentle motion. ERECT POSTURE. Continued motion. After a good cry. Changing sides. Pressure. Rubbing. Lying with head high.

Mind

      MILD, TIMID, EMOTIONAL, AND TEARFUL. Disgusted at everything. Discouraged. Easily offended. Whining. Craves sympathy. Children like fuss and caresses. Morbid dread of the opposite sex; marriage; thinks that sexual intercourse is a sinful act. Given to extremes of pleasure and pain. Easily moved to tears and laughter; after eating. Religious melancholy. Fear; to be alone, of dark, of ghosts in the evening; therefore wants to hide or run. Capricious. Miserly. Suspicious. Very irritable, touchy; feels slighted or fears slight. Answers, yes or no, by nodding her head. Imagines that certain articles of food are not good for the human race. Sad from disagreeable news. Mania from suppressed menses.

Head

      Aches; from overwork; suppressed sexual excitement; indigestion; starts in vertex. Occipital ache worse coughing. Semilateral headaches, pulsating, bursting; with scalding lachrymation of the affected side. Vertigo; worse sitting; looking up; with nausea and gastric or menstrual disturbances; before, during, after or suppressed menses. Profuse sweat on scalp. Headache of school girls at the time of puberty. Headache better walking in open air. Head seems heavy, cannot hold upright, cannot raise it.

Eyes

      Dimness of vision, with a sensation as though there were something covering the eyes which the patient wishes to rub or wipe; worse wind. Thick, yellow, profuse bland discharge. Ophthalmia; neonatorum; gonorrhoeal; from amenorrhoea. Fistula lachrymalis discharging pus on pressure. Acrid lachrymation. Styes; recurrent. Blepharitis. Conjunctivitis from colds. Blind attacks, before menses. Amaurosis, paralysis of the optic nerve. Itching, burning in eyes, causing rubbing. Weeping eyes.

Ears

      Ache worse night. Deafness as if ears were stopped up; can hear better in car; and in a warm room. Otorrhoea; discharge of pus, of blood; thick yellow humour, offensive; after exanthemata. External ear red and swollen and feels as if something pushed out from the ear. Mumps, esp. metastatic to the breast or testes. Lobes of ear swollen.

Nose

      Loss of smell, with catarrh. Foul discharge or odour before the nose. Coryza; obstruction of nose worse lying down or in a room; better going out in the open air. Green; orange coloured, foetid, urinous, nasal discharge; chronic bland yellow discharge. Nosebleed, before, during and from suppressed menses.

Face

      Pale. Neuralgia, with profuse lachrymation, worse chewing, talking, or with hot or cold things in the mouth. Lips cracked; peeling; swollen. Licks lips. Crack in centre of lower lip. Acne in young girls.

Mouth

      Breath offensive. Dry or slimy; without thirst. Drawing toothache better cold. Taste; bad in a.m.; loss of; from coryza; greasy, bloody; sweet; alternating. Tongue; yellow white; feels scalded. Much sweet saliva. Food; leaves an after taste. Taste bitter esp. for bread. Diminished taste to all food. Saliva; tenacious; frothy cotton like.

Throat

      Food lodges in. Dry; sore with sense of dysphagia. Sensation of a worm wriggling up. As of a sulphur vapour when coughing.

Stomach

      Aversion; to water, fats, pork, bread, milk, smoking, warm food and drink. Craves; acids or what disagrees; refreshing things, pungent things, herring, cheese. Food tastes too salty. Onions disagree. Sudden loathing; worse eating. Eructations, taste of food, remain a long time. Nausea. Heartburn. Thirstlessness; with nearly all complaints. Vomiting of food eaten long before. Visible pulsations in the pit of stomach. Stitching pain worse walking or misstep. Weight as from a stone. Stomach DERANGED; FEELS HEAVY. Hiccough when smoking tobacco. Hunger; but does not known for what.

Abdomen

      Cutting; pulsation; in epigastrium. Painful, distended; loud rumbling. Pressure as from a stone. Feeling of numbness. Pains extend into groins. Stools; changeable, no two stools alike; green, bilious; worse after midnight. Two or three normal stools daily. Hard painful lumps in both groins. Blind piles, worse menses, lying down. Diarrhoea in jaundice, with sensation of heat. Discharge of blood from rectum even when not at stool. Diarrhoea after fright.

Urinary

      Urination; involuntary on lying down, laughing, coughing; sneezing; hearing sudden noise; after pleasurable surprise; shock; passing flatus; during sleep esp. in little girls. Haematuria after urination. Heavy pressure or cramp in bladder, after urination. Sensation as of a stone rolling in the bladder. Urine dribbles when angry. Urging to urinate when lying on back. Stricture of urethra, urine comes in drops or stops and starts.

Male

      Burning down left spermatic cord. Acute prostatitis; enlarged prostate. Orchitis; gonorrhoeal; or from sitting on cold stones. Epididymitis. Testicles hang low down. Bloody emissions. Thick yellow discharge, late stage of gonorrhoea.

Female

      Amenorrhoea; from wet feet; nervous debility or anaemia. Feels like menstruating. Menses; dark thick; TOO LATE; SCANTY; after bathing; clotted, changeable, intermittent, irregular, vicarious; DELAYED at puberty. Dysmenorrhoea. Leucorrhoea; milky, thick like cream, with pain in the back and exhaustion, acrid. Weak labour pains. Bearing down worse lying. After pains; too long and too violent. Mammae, sore; aching; lumps in; in girls before puberty. Thin milky fluid escapes from mammae in virgins; before puberty. Milk; suppressed, scanty. Post-partum secondary haemorrhages from retained placenta. Weeps everytime, the child is put to breast. Swelling of breasts after weaning. Galactorrhoea. Secretion of milk during menses. Maldisposition of foetus.

Respiratory

      SHORT BREATH worse lying on left side; smothering sensation on lying down; worse if heated, open air. Cough; loose in the morning, dry in the evening and at night; must sit up in bed to get relief. Expectoration thick, purulent, slimy; sweet, saltish, bitter as it loosens up. Cough dry, hacking from tickling in epigastrium. Chest oppressed; as by a load. Soreness, or stitch beneath clavicles. Hoarseness comes and goes. Asthma from suppressions. Cough after measles.

Heart

      Palpitation; worse lying on left side anxious; with amenorrhoea; from emotions; after dinner. Catching pain, with short breath better by pressure of a hand and walking.

Back

      As if cold water was poured down the back. Pain in back and small of back as from prolonged stooping. Curvature of the upper part of the spine. Shooting pain in the nape and back. Backache worse lying on back, better lying on sides or changes of position, esp. so during pregnancy. Back feels bandaged. Pain in sacrum on sitting.

Extremities

      Rapidly shifting pains in limbs. Arms feel broken and dislocated. Elbows numb. Joints; swollen; red. Dorsum of foot swollen, oedematous. Pains down lower limbs, alternating sides. Legs heavy. Sticking in tibia worse lying better cool air and walking. Cold sweat on legs. Foul foot sweat. Veins full, varicose, painful. Milk leg. Periostitis. White swelling of knee. Inclination to stretch the feet. Numbness in legs when remaining long standing.

S.R. Phatak
A pioneer of Homoeopathy in Maharashtra, Dr Shankar Raghunath Phatak was born on 6th September, 1896. He did his MBBS from Grant Medical College, in 1924. Started his practice but somehow not satisfied with Allopathic Treatment.

He was convinced about Homoeopathy while going through Sir William Osler's writings on 'History of Medicine' so switched over to an entirely Homoeopathic Practice in 1932. He also started working on Homoeopathic literature along with his Practice.

He has contributed immensely to homoeopathic literature. He was an ardent follower of Dr Boger. His Repertory is based on Boger's ''A Synoptic key to Materia Medica'.