Colchicum autumnale. Meadow Saffron. *N. O. Melanthacae of the Liliaceae. Tincture of the bulb dug in spring.
Clinical.
Appendicitis. Asthma. *Cataract. Cholera. Colic. *Cough. *Cramp. Debility. Diabetes. *Diarrhoea. Dropsy. Dysentery. *Eye, *affections of. *Feet, *painful. *Gout. Heart, affections of. Ileus. Intermittent fever. Intestinal catarrh. *Lumbago. *Myalgia. Nephritis (rheumatic and gouty). Pericarditis. Proctalgia. *Prostatitis, Rectum, prolapse of. *Rheumatism. *Stiff-neck. Tongue, sensibility lost. Typhlitis. Typhoid fever.
Characteristics
*Colchicum is best known as a remedy in gout and rheumatism, and the provings show its specific relation thereto. It acts on muscles, bones, and joints. It causes extreme relaxation of the muscular system, the head falls forward on the chest, or falls back when the patient is raised from the pillow, arms fall helpless by the side. Stitching, jerking, drawing pains in muscles, periosteum, and joints. Extreme disinclination to move, worse from motion. Mind befogged, but answers correctly. Absence of apprehension, no fear of death. Results of getting wet and getting chilled, changes to damp weather, autumn dysentery, spring rheumatism. (The flowers of the plant appear in autumn, the leaves not till the following spring.) It corresponds to the gouty constitution, leucophlegmatic and melancholic temperament, venous constitutions, uric acid diathesis, the sediment being pale yellow and rather like fine flour than sand. Also, urine black as ink, urine loaded with albumen and casts. There is the irritability and aversion to touch so common in gout, pain in small joints, and especially the great toes. The stomach is acutely disordered, nausea and vomiting. “Nausea at thought, sight, or smell of food, especially of cooking,” is a characteristic symptom. (Nash records a striking cure by *Colchicum 200, to which he was led by this symptom. The patient was an old lady who was vomiting blood, and passing as many as sixteen bloody stools in the day. *The doors of the room had to be most carefully kept closed to prevent any smell of cooking reaching her as that immediately provoked nausea.) Sensation of icy coldness in stomach, or burning. Coldness is a common symptom: abdomen, stomach, extremities. Profuse cold sweat, marked chills with or without periodicity. Burning also is not uncommon: in cavities, especially abdomen. The characteristic stool of *Colchicum is jelly-like mucus, membranous shreds being also marked, violent tenesmus accompanies. Protrusion of rectum. “After evacuation, as in dysenteric, there is *generally relief (but in typhus fever, *e.g., sometimes a terrific spasmodic pain of the sphincter ani comes on after stool. This may occur in common diarrhoea)” (Guernsey). The rice-water stool, hippocratic face, coldness, cramps, prostration, led Salzer to find in it the specific for certain epidemics of Asiatic cholera. All functions, mental and bodily, are slow, nutrition and digestion are at a stand, and yet the patient does not emaciate rapidly. There is great prostration, debility from loss of sleep, the prostration of typhoid fever and typhoid states. On the other hand there are convulsions, cramps, and sometimes restlessness. The pains of *Colchicum are very acute and unendurable. The *Colchicum dysentery and rheumatism are exceedingly painful. Very sensitive and irritable. Cannot endure strong smells. Gouty diabetes, the uric acid reappearing as the sugar disappears. The heart is affected as other muscles. Oppression and anxiety better by walking. Heart-beating. Stitches about heart and loss of consciousness. Heart affected (pericarditis) on disappearance of symptoms from extremities, rheumatism appears on disappearance of uric acid from urine. *Colchicum will reverse this. ***J. R. Simson, of Tonawanda, ***N.Y., cured a very bad case of typhoid presenting among other symptoms, this: “his left pupil was contracted so as to be almost imperceptible, while the right was dilated to the full extent.” This is peculiar to *Colchicum, and no remedy relieved the patient till he received this.***B. Simmons calls attention (*H. P., August, 1889) to the *powerlessness of the affected parts which accompanies many *Colchicum affections, especially when occurring in leucophlegmatic subjects and when there is edematous swelling of the parts. He cured a woman, 36, mother of two children of leucophlegmatic temperament, who complained of rheumatism of the hands, which were swollen, joints stiff and powerless, pain as if bruised, the arms being affected but in less degree. “She was unable to brush her own hair, not so much from the pain as from the extreme weakness and powerlessness of the parts affected.” ***T.F. Allen gives “Tingling in finger- nails” as characteristic of *Colchicum, no other remedy has it. As usual with allopathic specifics, *Colchicum has been terribly abused. Here is an instance. I was called suddenly to see an old gentleman of 72, whom I found in a state of collapse, pallid, surface was cold and clammy, almost pulseless. He had been taken suddenly ill when in the water-closet, vomiting “black bile,” and had fallen on the floor when trying to walk along the passage. The history of the attack was this: He had formerly been “a martyr to gout.” Four years previously he began to take, on lay recommendation, a powder which analysis showed to be composed of equal parts of *Colchicum and Jesuit’s bark. He kept this up for six months and had no more gout. But at the end of the six months he had the first attack of this kind. It came quite suddenly and was, as far as I could learn, identical with the one in which I saw him. In addition to the symptoms named there was looseness of the bowels, the stool being black like the vomit. He was compelled to lie absolutely still, the least attempt to raise the head exciting nausea. Recovery took place in a few days. This is not exactly a case of what our friends would call “*medicine substitutive,” but I am inclined to name it “*maladie substitutive,” the substituted malady, *Colchicism, being considerably worse than the gout it replaced. These attacks had recurred every few months, although the powders were discontinued. The worse from motion is as marked as that of *Bryonia The patient must rest and lie down. Cannot lie on left side. Worse from any exertion mental or bodily. Bending forward better oppression and colic. Symptoms are worse night and evening. Warmth better generally, but warm food worse toothache, and damp, warm weather causes profuse watery stools, warm stove or warm room causes chilliness. Symptoms generally are worse from cold or damp, from getting wet, from bathing, living in damp dwellings, change to damp weather, from change of weather, also complaints from getting overheated. Pains in gout go from left to right, headaches right to left. Complaints of old people, asthmatic people.
Relations.
*Antidoted by: Belladonna, Camph., Cocc. Nux-v., Pulsatilla, Spigelia, honey and sugar. In poisoning give Am-caust. In sugar water. *Follows well: Lycopodium *Followed well by: Carb-v. (ascites). *Compare: Aconite, Arnica, Arsenicum (Colchicum has the prostration of Arsenicum, but without its restlessness), Cact. and Abrotanum (metastasis to heart), Bryonia (gout, rheumatism, serous effusions, worse by movement), Chi., Cocc., Mercurius, Natrum mur., Nux-v., Opium, Podophyllum (painless cholerine), Pulsatilla (derangement of stomach by eggs, gout, nausea at smell or thought of food, especially if rich or fat), Sepia, Calcarea, Arsenicum, and Ambra. (icy coldness in stomach), Lachesis (black urine, worse smell of food, cholera), Veratrum (cholera, cold sweat on forehead), Barayta carbonica (paralysis of tongue, cold, loss of sensibility), Nux-v. (debility from loss of sleep, irritability, all external impressions annoy, the debility of Colchicum is more profound and there is dislike of all food, and nausea from smells). Colchicum is botanically allied to the Veratrums, the Alliums, and Iris. Teste includes it in his Zincum group. *It antidotes: Thuja.
Causation
Grief. Misbehavior of others. Wetting. Checked perspiration.
SYMPTOMS.
Mind
Great dejection. Ill-humour. Peevish, dissatisfied with everything.The sufferings appear insupportable. The least external impression (bright light, strong smells, bad manners) drives him to distraction. Weakness of memory. Great desire for rest and disinclination to every mental exertion, absence of mind. Forgetfulness and distraction.
Head
Giddiness when sitting down after walking. Pulsation in the head. The headache is relieved, after supper, from warmth and lying quiet in bed. Pressure on the occiput, during intellectual exertion. Cramp-like pains in the head, especially above the eyes.Semilateral tearing in the head.Tingling in the forehead and upon the head.
Eyes
Pupils much dilated, only slightly sensitive to light, or immovable or slightly dilated. Left pupil contracted, while right is dilated (typhoid). Pains in the eyes, like a digging pulling, deep in the eyeball. Swelling of the lower lids. Watering of the eyes in the open air. (Iritis, keratitis, macule). Suppuration of the Meibomian glands (ulceration, left lower lid), burning and redness of the edges of the eyelids. Visible traction in the lower lids.
