Veratrum Album


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


Generalities

      White Hellebore profoundly affects the mind; NERVES; abdominal; heart; blood, blood-vessels; respiration; vertex, and digestive system. COPIOUS EVACUATIONS; vomiting, purging, salivation, sweat, urine, with PROFOUND PROSTRATION; COLDNESS; blueness; and COLLAPSE are characteristic features. EFFECTS ARE VIOLENT AND SUDDEN. It is a great FAINTING remedy; faints from emotions; least exertion; slight injury, with haemorrhage; after stools, vomiting. Cold perspiration on the forehead with all complaints. Cold; as ice; breath; tongue. Tonic spasms or cramps; in chest; bowels; hands; fingers; toes; soles of feet; with diarrhoea. Progressive weakness and emaciation in acute diseases; whooping cough, ague, etc. Sudden sinking of strength. Paralysis after debilitating losses. Convulsions caused by religious excitement; also of children. Post-operative shock. Excessive dryness of all mucous membranes. Burnings. Children feel better when carried about quickly. Blood seems to run cold; blood sepsis, pyemia. Carphology. Ill effects of fright; disappointed love, injured pride or honour; suppressed exanthema, opium, tobacco, alcohol.

Worse

      EXERTION. DRINKING; cold drinks. Fright. During pain. Wet, cold weather; change of weather. Before and during menses. Before, during, after stools. Touch; pressure. Injured pride or honour. Opium eating. Tobacco chewing.

Better

      Warmth; covering. Walking about. Hot drinks. Lying. Eating meat. Milk.

Mind

      Sullen indifference. Amativeness. Haughtiness. Delirium; early; with violence, loquacity or lewdness; during pain. Melancholy, head hangs down, sits brooding in silence; wants to be alone. Prays, curses, shrieks in turn. Desire to cut and tear things. Mania, alternating with taciturnity. Insanity. Remorse. Delusions of impending misfortune. Busy restlessness. Aimless wandering from home. Deceitful, never speaks the truth. Kisses everybody; before menses. Despair about position in society; feels very unlucky. Sings, whistles, laughs. Runs from place to place. Malingering, thinks herself pregnant. Puerperal mania. Nymphomania; embraces everybody even objects. Religious mania. Talks about the faults of others or scolds. Anguish, fear of death. Despairs of her salvation. Imagines the world on fire. Swallows his own excrement. Extravagant, haughty ideas and actions. Imaginary diseases.

Head

      Cold sweat on forehead; in all complaints. Violent pain driving him to despair, better cold. Sensation of a lump of ice on vertex. Headaches; with nausea, vomiting, pale face, diarrhoea, diuresis. Rubs forehead. Hair bristle, painful. As if cold wind blowing through head. Vertex itches during headache.

Eyes

      Surrounded by dark rings. Turned upwards. Lachrymation with redness. Lids dry, heavy.

Nose

      Smell before nose. Tip icy cold. Nose pointed. Epistaxis from right nostril, only at night in sleep.

Face

      Deathly pale; on rising; bluish; pinched or distorted; frowning; cold; terrified look. Cheek red (left), as if burnt. Jaws cramp on chewing. Lock-jaw. Lips blue; hang down.

Mouth

      Toothache; teeth feel heavy as if filled with lead. Grinding of the teeth. Tongue; cold; pale, cool sensation as from peppermint like. Taste peppermint like. Speech lisping, stammering or as if tongue was too heavy. Mouth; dry, salty saliva. Water taste bitter.

Throat

      Dry; scraping or roughness. When drinking water it seems to run outside, not going down the oesophagus.

Stomach

      Burning thirst. Craves ice water, which is vomited as soon as swallowed; wants everything cold; or sour drinks, juicy fruits and salt. Vomits or eructates froth. EXCESSIVE VOMITING WITH PURGING; violent retching. Hiccough, after hot drinks. Nausea while eating, cannot get food down without retching. Vomiting worse drinking and least motion. Cold waterbrash. All fruits disagree causing painful distension. Gnawing hunger in spite of nausea and vomiting. Voracious appetite. Potatoes and green vegetables disagree. Eating meat and drinking milk better.

Abdomen

      Painful retraction of abdomen during vomiting. Painful, burning at pit of stomach. Sinking and empty feeling. Burning or cold feeling. Watery, green, odourless or colourless (rice water) stools or in large masses; with straining, until exhausted, with cold sweat. Diarrhoea from drinking cold water in hot days. Peritonitis. Intussusception. Reversed peristaltic action. Cutting colic; as if bowels were twisted in knots, with cramps in limbs and rapid prostration. Cholera, morbus, infantum. Epigastrium painful. Hot coals in. Constipation of nursing infants or from cold weather. Stools; thin like ribbon, flat.

Urinary

      Urine; scanty, red brown. Thick, greenish, suppressed; involuntary, during cough.

Female

      Nymphomania; before menses, from disappointed love; unsatisfied passion; in lying-in women. Dysmenorrhoea with prolapse; with coldness of the body; diarrhoea; cold sweat, and fainting with slightest movement. Eclampsia. Puerperal mania. Menses; too early, too profuse, suppressed. Menorrhagia; with nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea.

Respiratory

      Air seems too hot. Asthma worse in damp cold weather better bending head back. Tickling down throat into lungs. Continuous violent cough; with retching; worse cold drinks. Rattling in chest. Neglected whooping cough; with complication. Barking cough with eructations, worse warm room. Involuntary urination with cough. Loss of voice. Cough on entering a warm room from cold air.

Heart

      Weak; cutting at. Visible palpitation; with chorea. Pulse intermittent, feeble, slow; thready. Blood runs like cold water through veins.

Neck and Back

      Neck so weak, child can scarcely keep it erect worse whooping cough. Pain crampy between scapulae better motion. Bruised feeling in sacral region.

Extremities

      Brachial neuralgia, paralytic and bruising pain in arms. Fine burning in arms, right to left. Arms feel full and swollen. Tingling in hands and fingers. Cramps in calves, during stools. Electric jerks in legs; must sit up and let legs hang down out of bed. Difficulty in walking like paralysis; from debility. Pains in feet or knees as if heavy stones were tied to parts, must move about. Feet icy cold.

Sleep

      Awakes at night trembling. Starts as if frightened.

Fever

      GENERAL COLDNESS; icy; on vertex; nose, tongue, mouth, limbs, sweat. Internal heat with cold surface, when drinking. Fevers showing external coldness only. Congestive chill; with thirst.

Skin

      Wrinkled. Feels scorched. Blue, cold.

Related

      Ars; Camph; Cupr; Cyanides; Tuberculinum

Complementary

      Carb-v.

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'.