NERVOUS SYSTEM. – Giddiness; violent aching in the forehead and temples, aggravated by stooping and movement; pulsative headache from cerebral engorgement, with heat and redness of the face, and tendency to perversion of the brain-function (Sick headache or migraine is usually better met by Iris or Nux V); nightly delirium, or paroxysmal insanity; Acute Hydrocephalus; Epilepsy, with active cerebral symptoms, and deep-red colour of the face during the fit; Chorea; Squinting (recent); Infantile Convulsions of true cerebral origin; intermittent Neuralgia, recurring in the afternoon, with scarlet-redness of the face.
SLEEP. – Sleeplessness, restlessness, or drowsiness; frequent waking; startings in sleep or when on the point of falling asleep, with cerebral excitement; screaming, moaning or terrifying dreams; sleeping with the eyes open or partially open.
EYES. – Dilated pupils; Photophobia; inflammatory redness and burning pain in the eyes; catarrhal and acute Ophthalmia; complete or partial Amaurosis; perverted or double vision; Muscae Volitantes. Recent Neuritis optica (diagnosed with the ophthalmoscope).
EARS. – Tingling and roaring noise; catarrhal deafness, with sore throat; Deafness following Scarlatina or Typhus; lacerating pains in the ears; Otalgia; swelling of the glands near the ears.
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM. – Violent, dry cough, worse at night, cough from tickling in the throat, with headache and redness of the face; pain in the larynx when coughing; spasmodic Whooping-cough; Hoarseness.
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. – Furred tongue, with red, elongated papillae appearing through the fur; inflammation of the mouth and tongue; Toothache, with red, hot face, throbbing pains in hollow teeth, extending to the temples, aggravated by eating and by hot drinks; redness and tenderness of the gums; catarrhal Sore throat, with sense of rawness, swelling and difficulty of swallowing (if the swelling the very great, Apis should be preferred to Belladonna); Bright-red appearance of the tonsils and uvula, with flushed face and headache; Quinsy (with salivation and foetid breath, Mercurius); spasmodic constriction of the throat; diarrhoeic evacuations with straining, especially in children, with redness in the face before and during each motion; acute spasmodic pains in the rectum.
GENITO-URINARY SYSTEM. – Involuntary passage of urine, from paralysis of the neck of bladder; Nocturnal Enuresis, in delicate sensitive children; irritability of the kidneys and bladder (true Inflammation requires Cantharis, etc.); Chronic Menorrhagia, with colicky pains (Platina should be considered for this condition); Toothache, Spasms, and Colic of pregnant women; Prolapsus uteri; Puerperal fever, with congestion of the brain.
SKIN. – Scarlet redness, with heat and dryness, diffused redness and burning swelling of the affected parts; non-Vesicular Erysipelas; Boils and Carbuncles. See also next paragraph.
EXTERNAL USES OF BELL. – Pleurodynia, Lumbago, and Neuralgia are, according to Ringer, much benefited and often cured by Belladonna plaster. Painful spots remaining after an attack of Lumbago, and excited by certain movement, s are also much relieved by the application of the plaster. According to the same authority, Boils, Carbuncles, and threatened Abscess of the breast, are well met by local application of Belladonna liniment or ointment. Inflammation of parts, threatening to end in Abscesses, have been thus arrested; or commencing suppuration limited, and the pain subdued by the local use of Belladonna The liniment, the extract or the ointment may be used, or instead a drachm of the officinal tincture of an ounce of olive-oil.
20. – Bryonia Alba – White Bryony.
There are many varieties of Bryony, but the one proved by the Hahnemann is the Bryonia-alba, indigenous in the north of Europe, Germany, and some parts of France. A deep yellow and very bitter tincture is made from the root. Bryonia dioica-Black Bryony, common in the hedges and thickets of this country, is chiefly used as an external application in bruises. Professional pugilists employ it in the form of a poultice, and it is said to remove all discolouration in from one to two days.
LEADING USES. – Rheumatism, Acute and Chronic, worse on movement, affecting the joints and muscles; Lumbago, with acute bruises sensations in the loins, and pains increased by movement; stiff-neck; complaints in which the serous membranes are involved-Pleurisy, Peritonitis, etc.; Bronchitis, affecting the large tubes only; Pneumonia; Relapsing fevers, chilliness being a marked symptoms; Dyspepsia; some affections of the liver; etc.
HEAD. – Congestive and Rheumatic Headache, and headache increased by movement; giddiness, sense of weight, fulness, and a feeling as if the brain would press through the forehead on stooping. Unlike the Aconite headache, it has generally a gastric or rheumatic origin, and the ideas are not disturbed as when Belladonna is indicated. Bleeding from the nose following headache is a further indication for Bryonia
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM. – Pleuro-Pneumonia and Pleurisy (often after Aconite); Tracheitis and inflammation of the larger bronchi (we have better remedies for capillary Bronchitis); common “Cold on the chest,” consequent on a similar catarrhal affection; dry cough, with constant irritation, little expectoration, stitching or catching pains in the chest, sometimes so severe as to induce retching.
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. – Water-brash, Heart-burn, acid eructation (chronic Robinia), bitter taste, sense of weight or pressure at the pit of the stomach, as if a stone were lying there; bilious vomiting; Constipation, from torpor of the bowels, with congestive headache, the faeces being large, and the passage causing pain; chronic Constipation, with similar symptoms, congestion of the liver, with pain in the right shoulder, dull pain in the right side, and slightly jaundiced appearance. (Recent and painful enlargement of the liver may require Mercurius).
GENITO-URINARY SYSTEM. – Red and scanty urine; premature and profuse menstruation; Milky-fever and threatened inflammation and Abscess of the breast from cold, in nursing women, when the breasts are knotty, swollen, and sore; these symptoms may also arise from weaning.
SKIN. – Suppressed eruptions are often redeveloped by a few doses of Bryonia
SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS. – Bryonia is well adapted to persons of firm fibre, dark complexion, bilious and irritable temperament; also to affections brought on by exposure to cold, dry weather, and piercing wind; and when the symptoms are intensified by movement.
21. – Cactus Grandiflorus – Midnight-bloom Cereus.
This cactus is indigenous to Mexico and the West Indies, and it is not found, except in conservatories, in temperate latitudes, where, of course, it is not so vigorous, nor so suitable as in its natural climate for medicinal purposes.
LEADING USES. – Affections of the heart and large blood-vessels, in which congestion is dissipated and irritation removed by the drug; Palpitation from nervous or organic disease; heart- complication in Rheumatic fever, with excessive impulse of the heart’s action, and intermitting pulse; sense of constriction in the region of the heart, as if the organ “were grasped and compressed by an iron hand.”
Headache, with pressure or weight on the top of the head, especially in women with too frequent and copious menstruation; faintness and palpitation; acute Congestion of the head, with profuse Epistaxis.
In some respects it acts similarly to Aconite but in affections of the heart its action is unique. It is also of value in cough and haemoptysis, the result of a failing heart, and in menorrhagia in heart disease.
22. – Calcarea Carbonica – Carbonate of Lime.
Calcarea Carbonica is found abundantly in the form of chalk, marble, egg-shells, oyster-shells; etc. For homoeopathic purposes we employ oyster-shells, selecting the calcareous matter existing between the external and internal shells, from which we make triturations.
LEADING USES. – The sphere of this remedy is very wide, including Tuberculous, Rachitic, and other affections depending upon defective assimilation and nutrition, with debility, loss f flesh, etc.; difficult teething; soft condition of the bones (rickets), on account of which the child is late in walking. Consumption, with hard cough, oppression, expectoration of yellow or green foetid pus, Haemoptysis, Hectic fever, Night-sweats, etc. “It may be laid down that Calcarea is best adapted to persons of leuco-phlegmatic temperament, with tendency to obesity” (Hughes). The flesh is pale, soft, and flabby.
HEAD. – Chronic nervous headache, with eructations, and sense of coldness in the head; dull headache, worse in the morning, as from brain fag.
EYES, EARS, THROAT, ETC. – Ophthalmia and Conjunctivitis, especially chronic and in scrofulous patients. Otorrhoea and chronic Otitis; chronic yellow or greenish purulent discharge from the nose (Ozaena); chronic Sore Throat with dryness, and swollen tonsils; glandular enlargements. In these local affections Calcarea probably acts chiefly by improving the constitutional conditions; it is not adapted to acute manifestations of the dyscrasia. Its external use, in the form of diluted lime-water, is sometimes very serviceable in connection with the internal use of the drug.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."