INTRODUCTION
CAPS. Spanish Pepper. See Hahnemann’s “Materia Medica pura” Vol. I. Duration of Action: three weeks.
COMPARE WITH
Arnica, Belladonna, Caladium, China, Cuba, Ignatia, Nux-v., puls., Veratrum
ANTIDOTES
Camph. Pepper antidotes Caladium and China
GENERAL SYMPTOMS
Superficial, drawing pains in different parts of the limbs, in the back, nape of the neck, scapulae, and hands, for many hours, excited by motion. Early in the morning, when rising, he feels as if all his joints were broken, a paralytic painful stiffness when commencing to move, especially in the knees and tarsal joints, relieved by continued motion. All his joints are painful, as if dislocated, accompanied with a sensation as if swollen. Cramp first in the left arm, and afterwards in the whole body, with stiffness of the arms and the feet, when rising from a seat, with tingling in the feet and as if they had gone to sleep. Lassitude of the limbs, greater during rest and when sitting. Weariness, greater in the morning than evening. Trembling, weakness of the feet. Complete depression of strength. He dreads all kinds of exercise. Languor and heaviness of the limbs, followed by trembling of the upper limbs and knees, the hands felt too weary to write.
CHARACTERISTIC PECULIARITIES
Most of the symptoms occur in the evening and at night. Aggravation of the symptoms by contact, open air, and cold temperature.
SKIN
Creeping in different parts of the skin, as of a fly. Sensation over the whole body is if all the parts of the body would go to sleep. Stinging burning itching of the whole body, greatest on the chest and in the face.
SLEEP
Sleep full of dreams. His sleep is interrupted by screams and startings, as if he were falling down from a height. Sleeplessness.
FEVER
Coldness over the whole body, the limbs are cold, without shuddering. Shuddering and shaking chills after drinking. Excessive chilliness, in the evening, after lying down, followed by coryza. He trembles and shudders. Shuddering and chilliness in the back, in the evening, followed by slight sweat, but neither heat nor thirst. Feverish shuddering, in the evening, with thirst, with great weakness, short breath, drowsiness, and ill-humor, or with headache, ptyalism. vomiting of mucus, painful swelling of the spleen, pain in the back, lacerating in the limbs, and contraction of the same. Fevers: particularly quotidian and tertian, with predominant chilliness; chilliness, with great thirst, followed by heat with thirst or without, and attended with sweat. Fever after abuse of Cinchona. Heat, at the same time shuddering, with thirst for water. During the hot stage: dartings in the head, bad taste in the mouth, colic, with ineffectual urging, pain in the chest and back, lacerating in the limbs. Heat in the face and redness, with tremor of the limbs. Glowing cheeks after dinner, with cold hands and feet, without shuddering. Red cheeks. The face is alternately pale and red, together with the lobules, with a burning sensation, without any particular heat being felt when touching the parts. (Burning of the hands, feet, and cheeks, the latter being swollen.) Hot ears, and hot, red tip of the nose, towards evening. (Internal heat, with cold sweat on the forehead.) Heat of the hands. Coldness of the feet.
MORAL SYMPTOMS
Taciturn, obstinate, and peevish. Ill humor. Tendency to start. Capricious. Anguish; he imagines he will die. Want of disposition to work or think. Home-sickness, with redness of the cheeks.
SENSORIUM
Intoxication. Dizziness of the head, early in the morning, when waking. Feverish chills and coldness, with anxiety, sense as of reeling, and dullness of the head. Vertigo. Increased acuteness of all the senses. Inability to think. Fatigue of the mind after the least exertion. Confusion of thought, absence of mind.
HEAD
Headache, as if the skull would burst, when moving the head or when walking. Beating, throbbing headache in one of the temples. Beating headache in the forehead. Aching in the temples and forehead, above the root of the nose, with stitches over the eye and in the ear. Stinging pain in one side of the head, increasing by raising the eyes or head, or by stooping, and accompanied with forgetfulness and nausea. Darting pain in the head, worse during rest, less during motion. Distensive headache, or as if the brain were too full. Drawing pain, with pressure in the forehead. Deeply-penetrating dartings in the vertex.
SCALP
Gnawing or burning itching, as of vermin, in the hairy scalp.
FACE
Pain in the face, either pain in the bone, excited by touching the parts, or fine pain in the nerves, when falling asleep. Red points in the face, and herpes on the forehead, with corrosive itching.
EYES
Dilatation of the pupils. Eyes protrude from their sockets, with paleness of countenance. Aching in the eyes, as if a foreign body were lodged in them. Burning in the eyes, early in the morning they are red, with lachrymation. Inflammation of the eyes. Dim-sightedness, early in the morning, as if a turbid substance were floating over the cornea, and obscured it, relieved for a time when rubbing. All objects appear black when brought before the eyes. Almost complete extinction of sight. Pressure on the eyes, he is unable to open them sufficiently. Incipient amaurosis.
EARS
Lacerating in the concha. Itching pain deep in the ear. Aching deep in the ear. Swelling on the petrous portion of the temporal bone, painful when touched. Pain under the ear. Hard hearing, with roaring. Attack of deafness, after previous burning and stinging in the ear, and succeeded by tingling.
NOSE
Bloody mucus from the nose. Violent, concussive sneezing. Dry coryza; tingling and tickling in the nose, also burning as in dry coryza.
JAWS AND TEETH
Ulcerative eruption on the lips. Swollen lips. Rhagades of the lips. Swelling of the gums. Drawing pain in the gums. The teeth feel to him as if elongated and raised, also dull. Burning of the lips.
MOUTH
Pimples on the tongue, with stinging pain when touched. Stomacace. Pain as if the tongue were swollen.
THROAT
Ptyalism. Pain during deglutition, as if the throat were inflamed. Simple pain in the fauces, only when coughing. Spasmodic contraction of the fauces. Dryness of the mouth.
TASTE AND APPETITE
Taste in the mouth as of putrid water. Watery, flat taste in the mouth: afterwards heartburn. Heartburn Acrid, sourish taste in the mouth.
STOMACH AND GASTRIC SYMPTOMS
Coldness in the stomach. Inclination to vomit. Qualmishness and inclination to vomit, in the pit of the stomach, early in the morning and afternoon. Fullness and anxiousness in the chest, after a meal, afterwards sour risings or heartburn, finally loose stool. Stool and redness of the cheeks, immediately after dinner. Burning over the pit of thee stomach, immediately after a meal. Aching in the pit of the stomach. Burning, with sense of swelling in the region of the stomach.
ABDOMEN
Pain, deep in the abdomen, more burning than stinging, accompanied by cutting in the umbilical region, during motion especially when stooping or walking, with desire to weep, ill humor, and apprehensiveness, and sweat in the face. Oppressive tension in the abdomen, especially the epigastric region, between the pit of the stomach and the umbilicus, increased by motion and accompanied with tension and pressure in the lower part of the back. Sensation as if the abdomen were distended unto burning, producing a suffocative arrest of breathing. Pressure under the short ribs and in thee pit of the stomach. Colic, as if from flatulence. Increased warmth of the intestinal canal.
STOOL
Colic, cutting and writhing around the umbilicus, accompanied by expulsion of a tenacious mucus, sometimes streaked with black blood, every stool is followed by thirst, and every drink by shuddering. Drawing and shifting in the abdomen, with or without diarrhoea. Mucous diarrhoea with tenesmus. Diarrhoea, immediately followed by tenesmus, without stool. Small stools, consisting of mere mucus. Small stools, consisting of bloody mucus. Dysenteric diarrhoea. Nightly diarrhoea, with burning at the anus. Tenesmus. After drinking he has to go to stools, in spite of his costiveness; he only passes mucus. Constipation, as if there were too much heat in the abdomen. Burning pain in the anus. Itching of the anus. Smarting, stinging pain in the anus, during diarrhoea. Blind haemorrhoids, varices of the anus, very painful during stool. Varices in the anus, sometimes itching. Haemorrhage from the anus, for four days.
URINE
Spasmodic contraction of the neck of the bladder, with cutting pain. Tenesmus of the bladder: frequent but unsuccessful desire to urinate. The urine is emitted in drops, as if it were poured over the urethra occasionally (immediately and for a long time)..
BURNING URINE
Burning, smarting pain in the urethra, after micturition. Pain in the urethra, especially in the forenoon. Prickings or violent stitches in the anterior portion of the urethra, between the acts of urinating. Cutting pain in the urethra, between the acts of micturition, from before backwards. The urethra is painful to the touch. The urine deposits a white sediment. Haematuria. Catarrh of the bladder.
