NUX MOSCHATA


Borland gives the symptoms related to stomach, intestines, abdomen, liver, rectum, digestion etc for the homeopathy medicine Nux Moschata, published in his book Digestive Drugs in 1940….


Symptoms

INDICATIONS for this drug will be found in three different conditions. First, in old people in whom there is very obstinate constipation; the bowels do not seem to act on any provocation at all. Second, in the somewhat hysterical woman who has been having rather profuse periods which have been suddenly checked. Third, in certain emotional disturbances in pregnancy. The constant feature in all three states is that the patients all feel as if the abdomen were blown out almost to bursting point.

Where these conditions appear together with the indications for Nux moschata, there is a very definite, clear-cut picture.

Associated with the local condition, is the strange mental picture of Nux moschata. It is strange state of almost bewilderment. The patients complain of all sorts of strange sensation all over. They cannot remember things properly, have a horrible feeling of weakness, feel as if any effort was an enormous labour, and they are liable to complain of general aching all over as if they had over-exerted themselves.

They also complain of a constant faint, sickly sort of feeling, and an overpowering sense of sleepiness. That is the constant state of all three types of patient. But the rather hysterical, suppressed menstrual patient and the pregnancy patient with the mild mental disturbance are liable to get periods in which suddenly everything strikes them as perfectly ludicrous; they burst out laughing in hysterical attacks of laughter which are quite likely to go on to attacks of weeping.

All the patients complain that their memory has gone to pieces and they cannot remember anything.

They complain of their mouths being incredibly dry, which is very distressing to them. Their tongue sticks to the roof of their mouth. It is not a feeling of thirst – they are not at all thirsty – but they will hold anything juicy in their mouths in order to relieve this horrible feeling of dryness. The condition is liable to be most troublesome in the morning on waking.

Practically all Nux moschata patients have a very large appetite, and usually they are very fast eaters. They complain that after a meal it feels as if the food remained in hard lumps in the stomach, producing a sensation of extreme soreness.

With the attacks of abdominal distention, there is a certain amount of nausea which may be quite acute; and pregnancy patients are liable to suffer from very severe morning sickness-intense nausea in the morning whenever they raise their heads off the pillow. With the general abdominal disturbance, they get a sensation as if diarrhoea were just about to start. They do have attacks of diarrhoea-a very sudden, profuse diarrhoea, followed by the sensation of abdominal distension which still persists.

The older people, after an attack of diarrhoea, are liable to develop very obstinate constipation. With this they feel so distended that they feel they will actually burst something if it is not relieved.

In addition to the local disturbances, there are one or two other pointers to Nux moschata. For instance, these patients, who are very chilly, very often complain of a sensation of extreme coldness of the skin and extreme dryness. They practically never perspire, and the sensation of dryness applies not only to the skin but to all the mucous membranes. They are always very sensitive to exposure to cold air, particularly to cold wind and if they come into a warmish room after being out in the cold air, they will sit down and go to sleep at once. This tendency is extreme in Nux moschata patients.

If they are walking against a wind, particularly a cold one, they ar very liable to become breathless, and are quite liable to suffer from loss of voice after exposure to cold air. Quite apart from this loss of voice due to exposure to cold, they also have a tendency to get hysterical aphonia which usually comes on after any emotional disturbance.

There is one other peculiar disturbance to which they tend. With their mental bewilderment, they complain that everything seems far too big. It is visual disturbance, it is the things they look at that seem too big. Even their own hands, when they look at them, appear to be double the size they ought to be. It is not everyone who sees things bigger than they ought to be who needs Platinum; occasionally, they need a dose of Nux moschata.

Douglas Borland
Douglas Borland M.D. was a leading British homeopath in the early 1900s. In 1908, he studied with Kent in Chicago, and was known to be one of those from England who brought Kentian homeopathy back to his motherland.
He wrote a number of books: Children's Types, Digestive Drugs, Pneumonias
Douglas Borland died November 29, 1960.