Murex – Sepia


Murex – Sepia.   Editor Medical Advance:

Please ask Dr. Kent where he got the symptoms of Murex. p. 478 of Advance, “pains in Murex aggravated whi…


  Editor Medical Advance:

Please ask Dr. Kent where he got the symptoms of Murex. p. 478 of Advance, “pains in Murex aggravated while lying down.” If he is right I must rectify Murex in my Therapeutics. p. 972, where it reads, “ameliorated by eating and lying down.” According to Dunham, Hom. Review IV p. 405- the mental symptoms are greater when sitting than when walking; when walking they cease and reappear again when sitting down. Page 406, Hering’s patient was obliged to go to bed and lie there. The excessive fatigue and debility in the lumbar region lead more to relief from lying down, and still there is that mental symptom. Perhaps Dr. Kent will kindly clear up the point is it seems he copied that symptom from Minton, p. 227. “all pains come while lying down.” and which can only be taken from Hering’s second case, where she felt no comfort in any position. Another question is whether Sepia has relief from lying down. Minton gives under Sepia, amelioration on or after rising from bed or from a seat, which may lead to aggravation during sitting and lying. In the study of symptoms we cannot be too critical.” S. Lilienthal.

The “empty, all-gone” feeling in the stomach is relieved by lying down, but that is not in harmony with the general conditions of Murex. In Sepia this symptom is relieved by moving about, and aggravated by the smell of food.

The flushes of heat in Sepia are brought on by motion (Hg). In most remedies we have opposite conditions. In Sepia some complaints disappear during violent exercise, and others are better by rest. (Allen Encyclop. p. 649.) “She felt best when at rest, and while lying.”

In Murex the flushes come on in bed, as well as when moving. The headache of Sepia is made better in the open air if it is pleasant, and by violent motion.

Murex: “A sensation as of the creeping of a snake over the entire region of the short ribs, upon the left side; Great depression of spirits; it seemed to her that she was hopelessly ill. She was obliged to go to bed and lie there” Dunham, Science Therapeutics., page 384.

These are not the uterine pains so fully brought out and cured by Murex, but a myalgia unlike the cutting pains in the uterus that come on when in bed, and are relieved by sitting and walking, until fatigue comes on when she must lie down for relief, and the cutting pains in the uterus come on again, going through and up diagonally, compelling her to get up and walk. I have seen Murex 200, produce this state and when I find it in practice, I am sure that Murex and Murex only is the remedy.

With the pains there is not the restlessness of Rhus. It is the pain not the restlessness that compels motion by walking. In one of my provers; “The cutting pains in my lower belly waken me in the night and compel me to get up and walk. When walking the bearing down comes on which makes me wart to hold myself with my hand.”

This prover would lie down to get relief from the sensation that her uterus would issue from the vagina, and after lying awhile her pains would begin to come on. This, I have many times verified in practice. But I never saw it expressed until I examined Minton, page 227. In Allen, Vol. VI, Murex. General Symptoms; “pains worse when sitting than when walking; and those which I cease to feel while stirring about return almost immediately on sitting still.” Under Inferior Extremities.-“Pains in hips and loins-but that of hips still continues even when not lying down.” I interpret that to read, worse when lying down and better from walking although not entirely relieved by walking. The aches and pains of Sepia-the headache is worse from shaking the head, but better from violent exercise. So with many of the pains of the body, but the distressing bearing down pains are better from lying in bed. The dragging down of Sepia which is so much like Murex that I am unable to distinguish between them, is relieved lying down; comes on while standing; is relieved by sitting and crossing the limbs and goes off while lying down. Again Sepia has apparently the opposite – page 624, Allen’s Encyclop. near the bottom of page. “At 8 A. M. the dragging and pressing sensation in the abdomen returned; pressure as though the contents would issue through the genital organs. The pelvic distress was noticeable the whole night at waking intervals, and relief only momentary by lying on either side with the legs relief on the thighs and the thighs on the abdomen. I waked this morning without the distress, but it returned on stirring.” I cannot but conclude that generally Sepia is better by lying down. Except some of the rheumatic, aching pains which are first made worse (by slow motion but finally made better by violent walking). Clinically, whenever I have been able to observe, Sepia cures the prolapsus that has the horrible bearing down as if parts would come out if it is accompanied by the “all-gone” sensation in the stomach, a lump in the rectum with constipation, the patient wants to hold the vulva with a napkin and the dragging down is relieved by crossing the limbs, sitting and lying. These are the symptoms as they are found, and Sepia cures not once in awhile, but always, if not given too low.

See Dunham’s Science Therapeutics, page 365, “Whereas on the other hand, the Sepia pains are worse from 9 a.m. to noon, and are relieved by repose, being, aggravated by motion and repose.” This refers to the prolapsus pains in his (Dunham’s) contrasting it with Lil-t., which grows worse during repose like Murex, page 319. “The pains are dull; pain like paralysis is predominant, amelioration from warmth and violent motion. Aggravation by repose and at night,” This shows that Dunham fully comprehended the two kinds of pain or distress produced and cured by Sepia Dunham says that the majority of pains produced by Sepia are aggravated by repose, but plainly state that the uterine suffering is ameliorated by repose.

James Tyler Kent
James Tyler Kent (1849–1916) was an American physician. Prior to his involvement with homeopathy, Kent had practiced conventional medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He discovered and "converted" to homeopathy as a result of his wife's recovery from a serious ailment using homeopathic methods.
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.