Introduction
MODEST little weed which flourishes about this time of the year in rick-yards among the litter of thrashings, with its acrid scent, and its white petals that bend backwards, as if putting their little hands behind them. This distinguishes it from rather like flowers. As my “herb-woman” used to say, “there are two of every kind”, i.e. the “herb” of great utility, and the counterfeit weed that looks so like it, but is useless. But, as a rule, it is scent, or the want of scent, that distinguishes them easily.
An excellent name for Chamomilla is Cannot bear it”.
“Can’t bear himself.”
“Can’t bear other people.”
“Can’t bear pain” (Coffea, Aconite).
Can’t bear things: wants them, and hurls them away.
Everything is simply intolerable.
You look at the Chamomilla baby and often see one brilliant cheek: you touch its head, and find it warm and wet.
Chamomilla is one of Clarke’s “Nursery A.B.C. drugs”-Aconite, Belladonna, Chamomilla Aconite is turmoil in circulation. Belladonna is turmoil in brain. Chamomilla is turmoil in temper.* Aconite and Chamomilla have many characteristic symptoms in common: but the mentality decides between them. If Chamomilla is a sick baby he is easily spotted. He will whine and howl and insist on being carried. The moment the tired mother or the jaded father tries to sit down, or to set him down, the music starts afresh; and the trouble is worse at night.
Or, short of this, he stretches out his little hand for thing after thing, and when it is offered pushes it away in disgust. “He does not know what he wants” (says Nash), “but the doctor knows-it is Chamomilla.”
When a little older Chamomilla, when sick, will order his nurse or mother out of the room. We have seen a mother crouching outside a closed door, inside which her small sick son was raving if she dared to poke her nose inside.
When still older he will refuse to see the doctor. I think it is Nash who says, when you know you have to see an “ugly” patient, who will refuse to see you, or will be rude to you, send on first a dose of Chamomilla and find peace. Chamomilla is definitely uncivil.
The Chamomilla pain is intolerable. One has seen a person tramping the floor in agony, after a bad tooth-extraction; when a small dose of Chamomilla gave almost instant and complete relief.
One has seen a person with ‘flu, not getting well as quickly as desired, and suddenly impatient and irritable to a degree. A dose of Chamomilla and the temperature promptly came down.
Some time ago we published a case of asthma, with such irritability that Chamomilla stared the doctor in the face. It was given, and cured.
Hahnemann said, “Do not give Aconite where sickness is borne with calmness and patience”; and of Chamomilla he wrote, “It is unsuited for persons who bear pain calmly and patiently.”
In acute cases where Chamomilla is urgently demanded by the mental state, you can pull out your watch and count the very few minutes to complete relief. The nature of the ailment matters little, it is the mentality that simply shouts for Chamomilla.
Chamomilla has not only bad temper, but bad effects of bad temper.
A Chamomilla woman flies into a temper, and gets a hemorrhage from the womb. Or a Chamomilla woman flies into a fury, and is rewarded with an attack of jaundice. One has seen these. Or a nursing mother has a fit of anger, and her milk poisons her baby.
And Hahnemann says in a foot note, Mat. Medorrhinum Pura, “The sometimes dangerous illness resembling acute bilious fever, that often comes on immediately after a violent vexation causing anger, with heat of face, unquenchable thirst, taste of bile, nausea, anxiety, restlessness, etc., has such great homoeopathic analogy with the symptoms of chamomile, that chamomile cannot fail to remove the whole malady rapidly and specifically, which is done as if by a miracle by one drop of the above-mentioned juice.”
Chamomilla is one of the “out-of-proportions” drugs. Arsenicum has prostration out of proportion (seemingly) with the malady, and Chamomilla has pain out of proportion (such as pains of labour- toothache-rheumatism, etc.).
A tip for Chamomilla is numbness with pain. (Platina, Cocculus.)
Hahnemann, footnote Mat. Medorrhinum Pura, says, “The paralytic sensation of chamomile in any part is never without accompanying drawing or tearing pain, and the drawing or tearing of chamomile is almost always accompanied by paralytic or numb sensation in the part.”
Another thing Chamomilla can’t stand in BED.
Chamomilla thrusts the feet out of bed (with Sul., Pulsatilla, Medorrhinum).
Is driven out of bed by pain or intense discomfort and misery.
“The chamomile pains have this peculiarity as a rule, that they are most severe in the night, and then often drive the victim almost to despair, not infrequently with incessant thirst, heat, and redness of one cheek; sometimes also hot sweat in the head, even in the hair.”
Twice cham. has brilliantly cured trench fever, to our knowledge. In one case the officer had been ill for a year, and his fever was at 9 a.m. (the Chamomilla black-type hour), and the turmoil in his temper was such that he had to live away from his people, in a hotel. He only wanted to smash tables and chairs.
Recently an out-patient was complaining of rheumatism, she could not sleep for it, but got up and walked the room, and was frightfully irritable. She got Chamomilla200. On her next appearance, “Much better: feeling better than for months”; and now she confessed that she had been so frantic that she had “wanted to break something”. When pain or fever wants to smash things, remember Chamomilla.
BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS
Dullness of senses, diminished power of comprehension.
Joyless obtuseness of the senses: understands nothing properly, just as if he were prevented doing so by a sort of dullness of hearing, or a waking dream.
Child cries; quiet only when carried.
Child does not wish to be touched.
Very irritable and fretful; child must be carried.
Piteous moaning of child because he cannot have what he wants.
Whining restlessness; the child wants this and that, which, when offered, is refused or pushed away.
Averse to talking, short and snappish.
Cannot endure being spoken to, or interrupted while speaking, especially after rising from sleep.
Patient cannot bear anyone near him, and answers snappishly.
Peevish disposition, nothing pleases.
Peevishness; she seeks a cause for being peevish at everything; can’t return a civil answer.
Irritable, impatient mood.
Howling on account of a slight, even imaginary insult, which occurred long ago (Staphysagria).
Easily chagrined or excited to anger.
Extreme restlessness, anxious, agonized tossing about, with tearing pains in abdomen.
The pains sometimes made him very peevish.
Oversensitiveness to pain, which seems unbearable and drives to despair.
Throbbing HEADACHE. Semi-lateral drawing headache.
Transient attacks of throbbing in one-half of brain.
Congestion to head; following anger; with pressure while lying down; on vertex; with heat in face and oppression of chest; with stitches in head and chest.
(Pain head) increased as soon as attention was directed to it.
Warm sweat on head, wetting hair.
EYES swollen in morning; agglutinated with purulent mucus.
Violent pressure in orbital region, sensation in eyeball, as if it was tightly compressed from all sides, with momentary obstruction of vision.
Roaring in EARS, as from rushing water.
Single large stitches in ear, especially when stooping, with ill humour and peevishness about trifles.
Pressing earache in spells, with tearing pain, extorting cries.
Particularly sensitive to open air about ears.
Heat in FACE after eating (and sweat).
Redness of one CHEEK, returning in paroxysms, without shivering or external heat. Hemicrania.
Red face, or redness and heat of one.(l) cheek, the other being pale.
One cheek red and hot, then other pale and cold.
Lower lip parts in the middle in a crack (Natrum mur., Sepia, Graphites).
Face sweats after eating or drinking.
On and under tongue vesicles with shooting pains.
Toothache if anything warm is taken into MOUTH; after coffee, (<) by talking; in open air, in room; getting warm in bed; during menstruation and pregnancy; most l. side and lower teeth; (<)at night.
Toothache recommences when entering the warm room, or drinking anything warm.
(Toothache) seems intolerable and makes him very peevish.
Teeth feel too long.
Gums red and tender. Dentition.
Teething children; with watery, greenish, and also chopped diarrhoea, smelling like rotten eggs; jerking of limbs, or starting convulsions, child bends double and draws legs upon abdomen: moaning, wanting to be carried: dry cough, restless at night; wants to drink; quick rattling breathing.
Bitter taste in mouth, in morning.
Heat in mouth, pharynx and oesophagus, to stomach.
Collection of saliva, of metallic, sweetish taste.
Fetid smell from mouth.
Spasmodic constriction of pharynx.
Sore THROAT, with swelling of parotid or submaxillary glands, or tonsils.
Want of APPETITE.
Great thirst for cold water and desire for acid drinks.
