Marking Nut.
Introduction
THE indications for Anacardium are so striking and so definite that it seems hardly necessary to Drug picture it.
But, a word of warning. We once complained to a very wise and learned homoeopathic chemist that Anacardium, in some digestive troubles, had failed to work. Of course there may have been one of two reasons for this: the drug may have been wrongly prescribed, or it may not have been a good preparation. The old man was too polite to suggest any but the second alternative, and he proceeded to explain. He said, the dark juice from which it derives its name is not in the nut but in the husk. Whereas ignorant persons put tinctures on the market made from the nut itself; useless for medicinal purposes. A successor of that same chemist with whom we were discussing the point the other day, sent us two samples Anacardium O which lie before us as we write: the potent preparation nearly black: the reputed Anacardium, a pale brown. So once again we reiterate the warning:–Get your homoeopathic remedies from homoeopathic chemists who know what they are selling, and do not pick up cheap, ill-prepared, perhaps vitiated drugs, just anywhere. To get results, remedies must be made from the medicinal parts of a plant, grown in its own habitat, culled at its best, and prepared and preserved without contamination. We are absolutely at the mercy of our chemists; and we are very grateful to them.
Anacardium is best known for its peculiar and extreme mental symptoms: its loss of memory : its senses of duality and duality and unreality (the latter makes one think of Medorrhinum); its perversions, blasphemous and cruel: its illusions, delusions, and fears; its peculiar sensations– bursting, binding, plugging. We will call on various outstanding prescribers to describe the manner in which they have found it useful, and the indications on which they have come to rely.
But, first, Anacardium, one of Hahnemann’s drugs, is to be found in Vol. II of his Chronic Diseases. Here we read, that “Caspar Hoffman has called the Confectio anacardina seu sapientium (celebrated as a distinguished remedy against weakness of mind, memory and the senses) a Confection of fools: because many had lost their memory and had become mad on account of using it too often and inconsiderately.” “Hence it was only the improper and too frequent use of Anacardium that made it hurtful,” as Hahnemann points out. “If applied correctly it became curative.” In other words, just another illustration of his discovery:– “That which can cause, can cure and, in order to cure, seek out that which can cause.”
Hahnemann tells us that this is one of the drugs that come from the Arabs. He says: “This powerful drug, together with others of which the ancients availed themselves with great benefit, had been completely forgotten for the last thousand years.” And he identifies and describes it thus: “Between the external black, shining, heart-shaped, hard shell, and the sweet kernel which is covered with a brown reddish thin skin, there is a thickly, blackish juice contained in a cellular tissue with which the Indians mark their linen in a indelible manner, and which is so sharp that moles may be etched away by means of it. A wrong Anacardium `occidentale’ is kidney-shaped,” he says.
BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS
Great weakness of MEMORY.
Loss of memory.
Irresistible desire to curse and swear.
Hypochondriasis.
When walking he felt anxious, as if someone were pursuing him: he suspected everything around him.
He is separated from the whole world: has no confidence in himself; despairs of being able to do that which is required of him. Weakness of all the senses.
Pain HEAD, relieved entirely when eating : worse during motion and work.
Gastric and nervous headaches.
Dull pressure as from a plug, left vertex.
VISION indistinct.
Dull pressure as from a plug, upper border right orbit.
Flat, offensive taste in MOUTH.
Symptoms disappear during dinner, but begin anew after two hours.
Pain about NAVEL as if a blunt plug were squeezed into intestines.
Great and urgent desire for stool, passes without evacuation.
Rectum powerless, with sensation as if plugged up.
Dull pressure as from a plug in right side CHEST.
Cramp calves when walking.
Sensation as of a hoop or band round the part.
CURIOUS OR ITALIC SYMPTOMS
Recollections only come after the time he is in need of them.
Has a devil in his ear, whispering blasphemous words.
Everything perceived has no reality.
Thinks he is double: that mind and body are separated: that a stranger is at his side: that strange forms accompany him.
