BELLADONNA


BELLADONNA symptoms from Manual of the Homeopathic Practice by Charles Julius Hempel. What are the uses of the homeopathy remedy BELLADONNA…


INTRODUCTION

BELL. – Deadly Nightshade. Hahnemann’s “Mat. Medorrhinum Pura,” Vol. I Duration of Action : from one day to eighteen months.

COMPARE WITH

Aconite, Agaricus, Alumina, Am., Arnica, Arsenicum, Aurum, Baryta, Calcarea, Cantharis, Causticum, Chamomilla, China, Cina., Coffea, Coloc., Conium, Copaiva, Cuprum, Digitalis, Dulcamara, Ferrum, Hepar, Hyoscyamus, Lachesis, Mercurius, Nitr-ac., Opium, Phosph., Phosph-ac, Platina, Plumb., Pulsatilla, Rhus-tox., Seneg., Sep, Silicea, Stramonium, Sulphur, Valer. – Bell is frequently indicated after: Hepar, Lachesis, Mercurius, Phosph., Nitr-ac. – After Belladonna are frequently suitable: China, Conium, Dulcamara, Hepar, Lachesis, Rhus-tox., Seneg., Stramonium, Valer.

ANTIDOTES

Large doses of Belladonna are counteracted by black Coffee. Almost all authors have recommended Vinegar as an antidote against Belladonna This is a mere conjecture, which one author has copied from another. Abundant experience has taught me, on the contrary, that Vinegar increases the pain produced by Belladonna* [*Stapf has also observed that applications of Vinegar to the forehead increase the headache produced by Belladonna, so as to make it insupportable; the application had to be discontinued.] Fits of paralysis and colic, produced by Belladonna, may be assuaged by Opium, although it acts only as a palliative.

A small dose of Op, probably also relieves the somnolence consequent upon the use of Belladonna Stupor, insanity, and frenzy, produced by Belladonna, are homoeopathically relieved, in the speediest and most certain manner, by a few small doses of Hyoscyamus The intoxication of Belladonna is relieved by Wine: myself, as well as Trajus and Moibanus, have witnessed this effect of Wine. A small dose of Belladonna having been administered non-homoeopathically, and being succeeded by a weeping mood, attended with chills and headache, these effects may be stayed by a similarly small dose of Pulsatilla Adequate help is the most necessary when a large quantity of the berries of Belladonna have been swallowed. In this case, relief may be obtained by large portions of strong Coffee, which restores the irritability of the muscular fibre, puts a stop to the tetanic convulsions – although acting as a mere palliative – and secures the vomiting of the berries; this may, moreover, be facilitated by tickling the pharynx with a long feather. The erysipelatous swellings of Belladonna are speedily removed by small doses of Hepar Camphor too, is a good antidote against some of the symptoms of Belladonna – HAHNEMANN.

CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS

According to Hahnemann, Belladonna may be used as a prophylactic against the genuine, erysipelatous, smooth, and glossy scarlet fever, as described by Sydenham, Pleneitz, and others. To effect this the smallest doses of Belladonna ought to be given every six or seven days. he says: “This great discovery of mine has been scorned and sneered at by a number of physicians, for at least nineteen years. They were ignorant of the character of this disease, which is proper to childhood, and they were indiscreet enough to mistake for scarlet fever the purple-rash, which had migrated into GErmany form Belgium, as early as the year 1801. They falsely applied to this purple-rash the term “scarlet fever,” and failed, of course, in trying to cure it by means of remedy which I had proposed. I rejoice that, in subsequent years, other physicians should have again observed the genuine scarlet fever, that they should have confirmed the prophylactic virtues of Belladonna against this disease, and should have done me justice, after the unjust derision which I had so long suffered.

“Purple-rash (Roodvonk) being a disease different from scarlet fever, it requires to be treated in a different way. In purple- rash Belladonna can do no good; and patients who are treated with Belladonna in this disease, will generally have to die; whereas all of them might have been saved by the alternate use of Aconite and the tincture of Coffea, – the former being given against the head, the increasing uneasiness, and the agonizing anguish; the latter against the excessive pain and weeping mood. Aconite and Coffea should be alternately given every twelve, sixteen, or twenty-four hours, in proportion as one or the other medicine is indicated. Of the Aconite, I give a small portion of a drop of the decillionth solution; of the Coffea, I exhibit the millionth degree of potency in the same form and quantity. Recently, both diseases, which are so different from each other the Sydenhamian scarlet fever and the purple-rash -seem to have become complicated in some epidemic diseases, so that one patient derives more benefit from Aconite, another from Belladonna”

HARTMANN. – This author states: “In addition to the antidotes mentioned by Hahnemann, Mercuriussol., in chronic sequelae, remaining after the use of Belladonna, deserves attention; acts more powerfully than any other substance on the nerves, particularly those of the cerebrum; is applicable, under certain circumstances, to intermittent, nervous and other fevers; is an admirable remedy during dentition; also, in inflammatory affections, as: Acute and chronic hepatitis; anginose affections; abdominal inflammations; inflammations of the lymphatic vessels and glands in children; catarrhal ophthalmia, also arthritic; amaurosis; inflammation of the brain; otitis; measles; and hydrophobia. Belladonna is indicated, also. for: Congestions of the head, chest, and uterus; haemorrhages; spasmodic diseases, cramp of the stomach; whooping cough; epilepsy; chorea; raphania; apoplexy; gout; rheumatism; prosopalgia-fothergill; vertigo; scrofula; otorrhoea; scirrhous indurations; dysentery; cachexies; insanity and imbecility.” – ED.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

*Spasms, startings, and convulsions of the limbs; when waking from sleep; *after a fit of chagrin, so violent that he runs up the walls; *renewed by the least contact; with hiccough; with weariness and anxiety; *with screams and loss of consciousness; *with delirium; *with laughter; *with contortion of the eyes; *with extension of the limbs, or violent distortion of the muscles; affecting principally the flexor muscles; with starting, principally of the hands and feet, with insensibility and rattling breathing; alternating with complete immobility; *tetanic spasms, opisthotonos, spasmodic inclination of the body and head to the left side; *paroxysms of stiffness and immobility of all the limbs, or of single limbs only, sometimes with insensibility, distention of the cutaneous veins, red, puffed face, full and quick pulse, and profuse sweat; *epileptic spasms; *hysteric spasms; *eclampsia; *St. Vitus-dance, especially in girls; *the spasms are preceded by creeping in the muscles, as of a mouse, tingling, with feeling of swelling and numbness in the limbs, or colic, with pressure extending up to the head. *Trembling of the limbs; *weariness, particularly in the evening, which scarcely allows him to walk; *laziness and indisposition to work or stir. *Great general debility, with weariness and a desire to sleep, in the afternoon. *Lameness and paralysis of the upper and lower limbs; *hemiplegia of the right or left side, particularly of the arm and lower limb; *sometimes with loss of sensation. Fainting fits, sometimes resembling lethargy. *Excessive irritability and sensibility of the organs of sense. *Liability to take cold, with great sensitiveness to cold air. Seething of the circulation and rush of blood to the head, with debility as if he would faint. *Atrophy and marasmus of scrofulous subjects. *Ergotism, from eating Ergot. *Bad effects from taking cold; *from fright, chagrin, or mortification; *from abuse of chin., Valer., Mercurius, Opium, Chamomilla

*Rheumatic and arthritic complaints, with inflammation and swelling; *congestion of blood; *scrofulous and rachitic complaints. *Pressure, with sticking or tearing in the limbs; *burning stinging; *tingling in the limbs; pain as if bruised in the limbs and bones; lancinations in the affected parts, extending into the head.

CHARACTERISTIC PECULIARITIES

*Belladonna is particularly suitable for complaints of plethoric individuals disposed to phlegmonous inflammation; or for complaints of lymphatic, scrofulous individuals liable to glandular swellings; *diseases of children, females, and young people of mild temper, blue eyes, blond hair, delicate skin, and red complexion. Some of the Belladonna pains disappear suddenly when they have reached the highest degree of violence, or they disappear in one place while other and different pains make their appearance in other parts of the body. Sudden and violent cramp- pains, which are generally experienced during sleep, obliging one to draw in the affected part, especially the side of the chest or abdomen, loins, elbow,. *Aggravations of the pains at night or in the afternoon at three or four o’clock; the least contact, and sometimes the least movement aggravates the pain; some of the Belladonna pains are aggravated or appear after sleep.

Charles Julius Hempel
Charles Julius Hempel (5 September 1811 Solingen, Prussia - 25 September 1879 Grand Rapids, Michigan) was a German-born translator and homeopathic physician who worked in the United States. While attending medical lectures at the University of New York, where he graduated in 1845, he became associated with several eminent homeopathic practitioners, and soon after his graduation he began to translate some of the more important works relating to homeopathy. He was appointed professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1857.