Mild, gentle, yielding disposition; sad and despondent, weeps easily, sandy hair, blue eyes, pale face, muscles soft and flabby.
Changeable* remedy, pains travel from one joint to another; haemorrhages flow and stop and flow again, no two stools alike, no two chills alike, no head or tail to the case___mixed.
Bad taste in the mouth, worse in the morn., with great dryness, but no thirst*.
Stomach easily disturbed, especially by cakes, pastry or rich foods.
Thick bland discharges from all mucus membranes.
Catamenia too late, scanty or suppressed, particularly by getting feet wet.
Modalities:worse in warm room, warm applications, abuse of iron, chilliness with the pains, better by cool open* air, walking slowly around, cold food or drink, tying up tightly better the headache.
Pains accompanied with constant chilliness, and the more severe the pain the harder the chill 9with profuse sweating, CHAM; with fainting, HEPAR-S,; with frequent micturition, THUJA; with delirium, VERAT.ALB).
The disposition of PULSATILLA is almost the opposite of that of NUX-V. NUX-V. is called the man s remedy and PULSATILLA the woman s remedy. This means simply that the complaints of one are found oftener with men, while those of the other are found oftener with the women.
Now to call attention to another of HERING S characteristics, and I know of not one who has expressed them better, we have –“*Mild, gentle and yielding, disposition; cries at every thing; is sad and desponding; weeps about everything; can hardly give her symptoms on account of weeping” And again:”sandy hair, blue eyes pale face, inclined to silent grief with submissiveness. ” (SILICEA is its chronic. )Here we the description of the PULSATILLA temperament as near as words can express it, and it is a fact that when you find it in a patient, no matter that the pathological condition, PULSATILLA will almost surely help. There are few exceptions. So we learn not to put too much stress on pathological states to the neglect of symptomological conditions.
PULSATILLA is a remedy of wide range of action. Farrington mentioned its use in 73 different affections, and has by not any means exhausted them all; and if you study PULSATILLA in Hughes Pharmacodynamics you will notice that, although he recommends it in many diseases, he does not, and evidently is not able to, talk as much from a pathological standpoint especially provings of the drug as he does of many other remedies. it seems to me like folly to undertake to pose as either an exclusive pathologist or symptomatologist. Both are valuable and inseparable; neither can be excluded. Pathology is what the doctor can tell (sometimes); symptomatology is what the patient can tell.
There is another condition of PULSATILLA which may be considered characteristic, and which Hering does not mention in his cards, viz, changeableness of symptoms (IGNATIA., nUX- MOS.,)All that Hering said was “*wandering pains shift rapidly from one part to another, also with swelling and redness of the joints. “Now if this occurs in rheumatism (Manganum-ACETICUM., LAC-CAN., KALI- BICH., KALMIA-LATI., ) and especially if in the PULSATILLA temperament we may perform a miracle of curing with this remedy. But this shifting of changeableness is not confined to the pains, which may be either rheumatic or neuralgic, but is found in the disposition. The patient is now irritable, then tearful again, or mild and pleasant; but, even with the irritableness, is easily made to cry. The haemorrhages flow, and stop, and flow again; continually changing. The stools in diarrhoea constantly change in color; they are green, yellow, white, watery or slimy; as Guernsey expresses it–“no two stools alike. “(SANICULA) This is often found in so called cholera infantum or entero-colitis of children in hot weather.
We sometimes have patients come into the office, and find, in trying to take their case, no “head or tail” to it. It is mixed. The suffering and pain is now here, now there. The symptoms are contradictory, as we term them. This condition should always call attention to PULSATILLA and it will often clear up and cure the case. IGNATIA also has these ever changing, hysterical and contradictory symptoms, both pre- eminently women remedies.
PULSATILLA like NUX-VOMICA is a great remedy for disorders of digestion. symptoms–*”Bad taste in the mouth especially early in the morn. or nothing tastes good, or no taste at all. “(BRYONIA, bad taste with coated tongue and thirst; PULSAT., no thirst.)
*”Great dryness of the mouth in the morn. without thirst. stomach disordered from cakes, pastry, rich food; particularly fat pork. ” (I would say-fat meats generally.)These are reliable symptoms, as given in Hering’s cards and are not very much like the symptoms of NUX-VOMICA, which is not disturbed by fats, but on the contrary likes them and they agree. with NUX-VOMICA warm food agrees best; with PULSATILLA, cold things.
The bad taste in the mouth is persistent and the loss of taste is frequent, as is also the loss of smell. How peculiar that PULSATILLA should have dry mouth and no thirst, while MERCURIUS should have characteristically moist mouth with intense thirst. There is no accounting for taste, as the man said when he saw a fellow kiss his mother-in-law.
I do not know that I could give a satisfactory pathological reason for this. Is it not a good thing that we do not have to give the pathological explanation for such a symptom before we can use it to cure our patients?To be sure there is always a reason for these things, but we do not need to know what it is before we can utilize the symptom.
The merest tyro in prescribing could hardly mistake the symptoms of PULSATILLA for those of NUX-VOMICA, and yet I have found physicians prescribing these remedies in alternation, at intervals of two or three hours.
Having called attention to the action of PULSATILLA on the digestive organs, which are lined with mucus membranes, we now wish to notice that it has a peculiar action on mucus surfaces generally. This peculiarity consists in the character of the discharges * from them. They are thick, bland, * and yellowish green. These are found in nasal catarrh; leucorrhoea; expectoration; gonorrhea, in ulcers; from the ears and eyes; in short, from every mucus outlet of the body.
The expectoration of PULSATILLA, which is thick, green and bland, tastes bitter, while that of STANNUM is sweet and that of KALI-HYDROIODICUM and SEPIA salty. One of Schuessler’s tissue remedies(KALI-SULPHURICUM). greatly resembles PULSATILLA in the character of its discharges, and not only that, but also in its wandering pains, even. worse and better in cool, open air. KALI-HYDROIODICUM is also better in open air and worse in a warm room. Now that we are on the subject of greenish discharges, especially the expectoration, we will mention also CARBO-VEG., LYCOPODIUM., PARIS, PHOSPHORUS and SULPHUR. Of course, the other symptoms must decide the choice between several medicines having one symptom in common.
A certain physician in Albany, N.Y., Was called in consultation on a so called case of phthisis pulmonalis. The case was in allopathic hands. After carefully examining the case, he asked: “What is your diagnosis, doctor?” “STANNUM”, said the doctor. “What”! “STANNUM”, replied the doctor. STANNUM was the diagnosis of the remedy, not the disease. It was given and cured the patient.
Now we come to the curative action of PULSATILLA in affections of the female genital organs. The fact that it has such a decided action upon these, added to the womanish disposition of this remedy, is additional reason why it is called woman’s remedy, as we said when writing upon the disposition and temperament, *”catamenia too late, scanty or suppressed, particularly by getting feet wet, and “painful menses with great restlessness, tossing in every possible direction, ” and we have already mentioned the changeable characteristic in the flow of the menses, viz, they stop, and flow, stop and flow again, etc. so, also, the menorrhagia.
In these menstrual troubles of PULSATILLA the wetting or chilling of the feet is of prime importance and, acting upon it, you may save your patient from consumption as a result of such exposure and suppression. Now don’t pour down mother tincture of PULSATILLA by the ten drop doses, as is the manner of those who do not believe in potentized remedies. You may give PULSATILLA in the high, higher, and highest potencies, and confidently expect the best results. I have often seen the delayed menses of young girls of PULSATILLA temperament appear promptly and naturally under the M.M. of swan and C.M. of Fincke (also with KALI CARBONICUM, TUBERCULINUM, and OTHERS).So also I have seen them restored after suppression, by the same. Now if you should try one of these very high potencies in a case of menstrual difficulties, and it should not succeed, don’t jump to the conclusion that I have been mistaken, for PULSATILLA is not the only remedy for such cases. Homoeopathy is too often blamed when the blame lies in the stupidity of the prescriber. MAGNESIA PHOS. will relieve more painful cases of painful menstruation than PULSATILLA, and that is not a cure all, either. *Study up your case.
