VESPA VULGARIS


Derived from Kent’s classroom lectures on the homeopathy remedy Vespa Vulgaris. Published in 1926 as Lesser Writings, Clinical Cases, New Remedies, Aphorisms and Precepts by J.T. Kent….


A young man in perfect health was stung by a large number of wasps. Frequent convulsions followed, involving all the muscles of the body, with loss of consciousness; the convulsions disappeared after three years, leaving him subject to attacks of unconsciousness when walking about.

He often starts to go somewhere and finds himself several blocks beyond the place he started for.

The period of unconsciousness lasts several minutes. He does not fall nor does he drop things which he happens to hold in his hands.

If spoken to he does not answer nor seem to bear or notice anything; he looks into space. When he comes to himself, he has no memory of the moments that have passed; he is as bright as ever. He has no warning of the coming spell: A friend remarked that his eyes were glassy and bloodshot, and he looked as though he had no sense.

When standing upon the platform of a street car, he was noticed to grasp the iron railing and look wild; two men standing near him undertook to loosen his hands and put him in a seat, but they could not force him to let loose until he came to himself, and then he needed no aid. It was thought that he continued to grasp the railing about ten minutes, but time flies under excitement, and no one has timed this period.

He becomes sick and faint near a warm stove or in a close room; often gets up and leaves a close warm room to prevent vomiting; craves cold washing of hands and face which makes him feel better. Anger or excitement will bring on a spell.

The usual antidotes have helped for a while, and then the symptoms have returned with about the same general features.

Mentally he is not strong, and the tendency is to grow weaker.

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.