Introduction
I SUPPOSE we have, all of us, witnessed the wonderfully prompt action of Colocynth in spasm and colic relieved by bending over and pressing hard into the abdomen; till Colocynth has come to mean, for us, just this and nothing more.
But Colocynth stands for a great deal more than “the intestines as if ground between hard stones, the pain relieved by doubling up, and by hard pressure.”
It has frightful nerve pains, in spine, in limbs, in head, in ovaries, especially if caused by anger and indignation.
NASH says, “No remedy produces more severe colic than this one, and no remedy cures more promptly. Dr. T.L. Brown once said to me in substance: If I was disposed to be sceptical as to the power of the small dose to cure, Colocynth would convince me, for I have so promptly cured severe colic in many cases, from a child to adults, and even in horses. Of course every true Homoeopath can respond Amen to that.
“The colic of Colocynthis is terrible, and is only bearable by bending double, and pressing something hard against the abdomen. He leans over chairs, the table or bedposts to get relief. This colic is neuralgic in character, and is often attended with vomiting and diarrhoea, which seems to be the result of the great pain more than any particular derangement of the stomach or bowels.” Kent also emphasizes this point as we shall see later.
Nash contrasts Colocynth with Chamomilla. “Both Chamomilla and Colocynth have colic from a fit of anger, or others affections from the same cause. Chamomilla succeeds in the colic of children if there is much wind which distends the abdomen; the child tosses about in agony, but does not double up like Colocynth.”
GUERNSEY (Keynotes) puts things in a nutshell, and this is how he puts Colocynth.
“The strongest characteristic, calling for the use of this remedy, is an agonizing pain in the abdomen, causing the patient to bend over double. Relief is obtained by motion, such as twisting, turning and wriggling around, and the motion is kept up steadily while the pain lasts; the pain is made worse after eating or drinking the least amount. This pain may occur alone, or in dysentery, cholera, etc. The doubling over of the patient and pressing on the abdomen is the chief characteristic. Sensations, as though stones were being ground together in the abdomen, working upon the soft parts: of muscles being shortened: of tightness in outer parts. Worse, from mental troubles; anger with indignation; mortification caused by offence.”
But it is KENT who gives us the most brilliant picture of Colocynth, bringing out certain features of the drug that one hardly gets elsewhere, and which are difficult to extract (we have recently tried it!) from the Repertory.
He says, “The principal feature of Colocynth is its severe, tearing neuralgic pains; so severe that the patient is unable to keep still. Sometimes they are relieved by motion-at least it appears that they are worse during rest:-better by pressure and sometimes relieved by heat. Pains occur in the face, abdomen, along the course of nerves.
“These pains are often due to a very singular cause, namely anger with indignation. Hence persons who are haughty and easily offended or chagrined have Colocynth complaints. Anger will be followed by violent neuralgia in the head, the eyes, down the spine, in the intestines.
“Screams with the pains. Walks about the room and becomes increasingly anxious as the pain goes on. His friends irritate him: he wants to be alone.
He has all he can do to stand those terrible pains. They are often the result of anger with indignation.
“Vomiting and diarrhoea frequently come with the pains, especially if they are in the abdomen.
“Colic comes on in paroxysms that grow in intensity.
“The patient becomes increasingly nauseated till finally he begins to vomit; and he continues to retch after the stomach is empty.
“The physician asks, `What has happened to give you these pains?’ Her answer is likely to be, `My servant spilled some dirty water on a handsome rug, we had words over it, and this is the result.’
“The vomiting of Colocynth is different from that of most other remedies. Nausea does not appear at first, but when the pain becomes sufficiently intense nausea and vomiting begin, the contents of the stomach are ejected, and the patient continues to retch until the severity of the suffering decreases.”
While writing this article a case came along which gave the perfect Colocynth picture, so graphically depicted by Kent.
The patient had been brought from her bed, doubled up with pain, vomiting bitter yellow fluid on the journey, and her face expressive of great suffering. “She has had many such attacks, and they all begin the same way and follow the same course. First she gets pain in the back, between shoulders, this extends to head, and all over back, then she begins to vomit. This attack started nine days ago. ` If she gets worked up, it brings on an attack. When ill she is all over the bed, and in and out of bed: wants to get up and walk about: but if she gets up she usually vomits.”
Kent also points out, “The expression of the Colocynth face is one of anxiety from the severity of the suffering. No matter where the pain is, the face is distorted.
“All pains are better from pressure, but this is in the beginning. After the pain has been going on for several days with increasing severity, the part becomes very sensitive and pressure cannot be endured.
“The stomach pains are clutching, cramping and digging as if grasped by the fingers of a powerful hand.
“Similar pains occur lower down in the abdomen, but they are still better from hard pressure, and from doubling up-which amounts to pressure-they come on in paroxysms of increasing severity, until the patient is nauseated and vomits… The victim bends down over the back of a chair, or over the footboard, or, if unable to get out of bed, he doubles up over his fists.
“Colic from anger with indignation; better from bending double and worse in the upright position, while standing, or bending backward.
“In the violent ovarian neuralgias of Colocynth, the woman will flex the limb of the painful side hard against the abdomen and hold it there.
“Colic of infants when they are relieved by lying on the stomach; as soon as the position is changed, they begin to scream again.
Colocynth produces a state of the nervous system like that found in individuals who have for years been labouring under annoyances and vexations. A man whose business affairs have been going wrong becomes irritable, and nervous exhaustion follows. A woman who must watch her unfaithful husband night and day to keep him away from other woman gradually assumes a sensitive, irritable state of mind and is upset by the least provocation. This is the state of the Colocynth prover.
“You will seldom find this medicine indicated in strong, vigorous, healthy people who have suddenly become sick.”
HAHNEMANN writes: “The older physician brought Colocynth into disrepute by giving it in large dangerous doses as a purgative. Their successors, terrified by this dreadful example, either rejected it entirely, whereby the curative power it possessed was lost to mankind, or they only ventured to employ it on rare occasions, and then never without previous alteration and weakening of its properties by silly procedures, which they called correction, whereby its pretended poisonous character was said to be tamed and restrained. With the aid of mucilage they mixed up with it other purgative drugs, or they partially destroyed its power by fermentation or by prolonged boiling with water, wine, or even urine, as he had been already stupidly done by the ancients.
“But even after all this mutilation (their so-called correction) Colocynth always continued to be a dangerous remedy in the large doses in which physician prescribed it.
“It is really wonderful that in the medical school there has always been such an absence of reflection, and that, in regard to matters like this, the obvious simple thought never occurred to any one that if the heroic medicines acted too violently in a certain dose, this was owing less to the drug itself than to the excessive magnitude of the dose, which yet may be diminished to any extent required; and that such a diminution of the dose, while leaving the drug unaltered in its properties, only reduces its strength so as to make it innocuous and capable of being employed with advantage, and hence must be the most natural and appropriate corigens of all heroic medicines.
“It is obvious that if a pint of alcohol drunk all at once can kill a man, this is owing not to the absolute poisonousness of the alcohol but to the excessive quantity, and that a couple of drops. of alcohol would have been harmless to him.
“It is obvious that whilst a drop of strong sulphuric acid immediately produces a blister and erosion on the part of the tongue to which it is applied, on the other hand, when diluted with 20, or 100,000 drops of water it becomes a mild, merely sourish fluid, and that hence the most natural, the simplest corigens of all heroic substances is to be found only in the dilution and the diminution of the dose until it becomes only useful and quite innocuous.
