There is usually a great deal of soreness to touch, the muscles feel bruised as if they had been pounded. I know that Aconite, Arnica or Bryonia is often given when Ranunculus is indicated.”
Ranunculus for persons who are subject to stitches about the chest in every change of weather.
May be used for sore spots remaining in and about the chest after pneumonia. A feeling of subcutaneous ulceration. (Pulsatilla)
For pains from adhesions after pleurisy. For diaphragmitis with sharp shooting pains from hypochondria and epigastrium through the back. (Cactus.) Again for the bad effects of drink. Then, the skin. (We have given this fully in raged to herpes zoster.) But also pemphigus, with large blisters which burst and leave raw surfaces. In eczema, with thickening of the skin, and the formation of hard, horny scales. (Antim crud.) Hay fever. (We have given.)
Farrington warns us that Sulphur does not follow Ranunculus well.
He says that Ranunc. sceleratus develops more markedly large isolated blisters. When these burst, an ulcer is formed, with very acrid discharge, making the surrounding parts sore.
He says, even in diphtheria or typhoid it is indicated by denuded patches on the tongue, the remainder of the organ being coated. Nat. mur., Arsenicum, Rhus and Tarax. have these patches (“Mapped tongue”) but none of these remedies have the same amount of burning and rawness that Ranunc. sceleratus has.
May be indicated in ordinary catarrhs with sneezing, fluent coryza, pains in joints, and burning on urination.
H. C. ALLEN (Keynotes) stars off with. “one of our most effective remedies for the bad effects of alcoholic beverages; spasmodic hiccough, delirium tremens.”
After the stitches, etc., he gives: Pleurisy or pneumonia from sudden exposure to cold, while overheated (Aconite, Arnica).
Corns sensitive to touch; smart, burn (Salicyl. a.)
And so on, as already recorded.
One recalls, very long ago, and before X-ray would inevitably have revealed the condition, a case of most extreme suffering, the pains being in the chest. The case was carefully gone into the from the symptomatic point of view, and after a few doses of Ranunc. bulb. the pain disappeared. The man, an in-patient, had been almost heart-broken because one of the surgeons who examined him had suggested malingering. His symptoms, had suggested the successful “like” prescription, and he went out happy and (apparently) well.
A couple of years later he was readmitted for some acute illness–a septic pneumonia, as a matter of fact, and died. A post mortem was done, and revealed what occasioned a gasp of surprise:–a large aneurism which had caused the text-book wasting of several intervertebral discs. This fully accounted for the old pain, but not for its cessation. Ranunc. had done for that man what nothing else could have done : it had made life endurable, even where it could not cure.
For Homoeopathy, “incurable” does not mean that no relief of suffering can be give. Far from it.
BURNETT used to make play with Ranunc. sceleratus (the wicked buttercup). His indication was excessive external tenderness of chest. This, CLARKE says has led to the cure of many chest affections, including aneurism.
But, the best-known characteristic of Ranunc. sc. (which is a well-proved drug) is the mapped or peeled tongue, and when this is associated with smarting, burning and rawness, Ranunc. sc. will be the remedy. (CLARKE.).
