Intense congestion and fullness of all the parts.
“Apoplexy of the retina. Half-opened, protruding, staring eyes.”
You will see that in the infant when the child lies in a stupor; eyes half open; congestion of the brain; face flushed and intensely hot; rolling the head from side to side; if it has been going on for several days the face will – later become pallid, and the neck drawn back.
In these congestive troubles, lying with the eyes half open; almost no winking.
“Orbital neuralgias. Protruding eyes, with dilated pupils. Inflammation of the optic nerve and retina. Eyes congested and red.”
Another feature belonging to the eye is strabismus. Not those cases coming on gradually, such as will, need the surgeon, but those that come on with congestion of the brain, with this state of congestion and dilated pupils and rolling the head from side to side, flushed face, throbbing carotids and intense heat.
After a day or two the eye begins to turn in, and the little one is cross-eyed. That is an additional indication for Belladonna Sometimes, coming out of a severe congestion, the strabismus remains and Belladonna is sometimes the suitable remedy.
All of these cases coming on from the circulatory, conditions should be cured with remedies. They should never be sent to the surgeon. Though they remain some time, even months, they will be cured by well-selected remedies, while those that come on gradually, and those that are born so, will not be relieved by remedies.
Only those spasmodic ones mat are associated with, and come on from, congestion of the brain. In connection with congestion of the liver and duodenal catarrh there is yellowisness in the eyes.
Ears: In inflammations of the ear which go on to suppuration Belladonna is rarely useful. We have to look to deep acting remedies.
We may have the pain, tenderness, over sensitiveness, all inflammatory conditions; but cases requiring Belladonna rarely go on to suppuration.
Mucous: Now we come to the mucous membranes, the nose, mouth, throat, larynx, chest, the mucous membrane extending into the car through the Eustachian tube, and we have another strong feature of Belladonna which characterizes most of its conditions.
Great dryness; a sensation of dryness.
Dryness in the nose; mouth; of the tongue; in the throat; in the chest, and such evidences as dry cough and spasmodic conditions.
These are so general. that with the nose symptoms, the coryza, the throat symptoms, the cough, this is intensified; dryness of mucous membranes will generally be found. It is that way with Phosphorus
When Phosphorus has a sore throat it will have dryness of the mouth, tongue and air passages.
This is general as to the respiratory tract. Then there is coryza with much sneezing,
“Pricking, burning in the nose.”
Hot sensation in the nose. The general states present Much redness of the face, much heat with the coryza; hot head, cold extremities; marked headache, because there is dryness.
The very dryness itself is sometimes causative of pain, because the natural flow from the mucous membranes is dried up.
Whenever we have checked secretions we have fever, and in Belladonna this is marked. Checking of the discharge with fever, with heat, redness and burning; red face, burning face; heat in the face and head, and cold extremities. It says in the text,
“maddening headache, with suppressed catarrh.”
Now, in such a climate as this most people during winter and cold weather and the changes have more or less mucous flow from the nose, and eyes, and air passages.
They are better when this takes place. All at once it stops, and all the parts become dry; then look out.
An awful, maddening, throbbing headache comes on. It is not so suitable for those old catarrhs where there is a copious flow of thick, yellow mucus.
The catarrhal state wherein Belladonna is useful is simply the exaggeration of the whitish mucous flow. Where it has been thick and yellow, and then stops suddenly from a cold, and a coryza comes on, Belladonna is worthless.
Always bear in mind that you select for suppressed catarrh a medicine that is within the sphere of the symptoms that have been suppressed. Hence, the medicine for thick, yellowish-green discharges might be Mercurius, Sulphur, or Pulsatilla; then you are within the range of medicines capable of re-establishing the flow, and at the same time beginning a curative effect on the state of the tissue, leaving the patient in a much better state.
Face: Violent faceaches. Rending, tearing pains in the face; throbbing pains in the face. Pains in the face worse on the right side; worse from a jar; with much heat; throbbing carotids; hot head; brought on from exposure to cold wind, and riding in the cold wind.
Belladonna has cured paralytic conditions, but Causticum is generally the remedy for paralysis of the face from riding in a cold wind. Spasms of the muscles of the face.
Extraordinary twitchings of the face. Erysipelas in the face; a bright red gradually becoming purple if there is a fever accompanying it. In the neuralgic pains there is always more or less congestion of the face with violent pains, and the face will be bright red.
With the zymotic state, as the febrile condition becomes more profound, and as the blood becomes more zymotic, the face grows from duskiness into a mottled state, as you will see in Baptisia, more marked in Baptisia than in Belladonna
“Red face, with burning heat.”
The teeth are full of pains, congestions, and aches of a similar character. Very sensitive teeth.
The tongue should be a dry tongue, as that is general with its mucous membranes. Dry mouth; dry tongue; swollen tongue; protruding tongue, dry and hard, feels like leather.
Loss of sensation, loss of taste, loss of power of the tongue and loss of speech are all Belladonna features.
“Paralytic weakness of the tongue; trembling of the tongue when it is protruded.”
It comes out weak, In a very few days the Belladonna fever patient is greatly reduced, is greatly exhausted, has almost a paralytic weakness.
When he raises the hand and holds it a moment it trembles in the same way.
That which is found in the tongue is only a part of the general state. Trembling from congestion of the nerve centers. The papillae of the tongue are erect, and the tongue is bright red. Bright red tongue in scarlet fever. Bright red tongue in congestion of the brain, with the erect papillae.
When going over Arum triphyllum I told you it had been pronounced “strawberry tongue.”
It is the same with Belladonna The tongue looks as red as a strawberry, and the papillae stick up like seeds.
“Red streak in the middle of the tongue, wide and broader towards the point. Tongue, white centre with red edges.”
White tongue with brain affections is not uncommon. It has thick, milk-white, delicate fur all over the tongue in brain troubles.
“Dryness of the mouth, with thirst.”
“Dryness of the mouth, with no thirst.”
Belladonna is full of thirst, we will find when we come to study the stomach symptoms.
Stomach: Sometimes Belladonna wants large quantities, sometimes water constantly to wet the mouth, like Arsenicum
It is a common feature in Belladonna, like Arsenicum, to want water little and often, just enough to wet his parched tongue, mouth and throat.
Dryness in posterior nares, and the mucus that he drags down from the posterior nares is tough and stringy, and very scanty, and it is white, or, if changed at all from white, it is bloody.
Yet I have not said anything about this remedy for bloody discharges and for bleeding. We will find before we finish that it is a haemorrhagic remedy, that parts bleed easily.
There is bleeding from the eyes, bleeding from the nose, bleeding from the throat, bleeding from the larynx, bleeding from the chest, bleeding from the bladder, bleeding from the uterus.
Ulcers bleed. Little fine ulcers in the throat no bigger than a pinhead. Little aphthous patches bleed. An aphthous inflammation of the throat; but the most of the complaints of the throat are dry and red.
Great tumefaction. Extremely sensitive; much swelling; inability to swallow. Great pain on swallowing, with all the sensitivity of the surrounding parts, with the sore throat, and with the inflamed throat.
Inflammation and swelling of the tonsils, with red face, intense heat, throbbing carotids, high fever, coming on from cold. Fauces and pharynx deep red. Soft palate and tonsils swollen.
Swallowing painful, particularly of fluids. Speech thick.
“Feels like a lump in the throat” that is from the swollen tonsils.
Constant scraping and hawking in the throat. The pharynx and larynx are very commonly in a state of spasm; partly from dryness, partly from extreme sensitiveness of the nerves of the part. Clutching of the throat on going to sleep, clutching of throat on coughing. Spasms of the oesophagus.
“Spasmodic constriction of the throat.” Constrictions that are spasmodic.
Constrictions of the larynx, of the pharynx, of the throat. Belladonna has constructive pains in parts that feel like the clutch of fingers. That sensation of clutching is felt in the uterus; it is a spasm. It is felt, in the liver; it is felt in the brain; it is felt in the throat. Jerking and twitching of muscles, with violent pain, in painful parts.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.
Comments are closed.