CLEMATIS Medicine


CLEMATIS symptoms of the homeopathy remedy from Plain Talks on Materia Medica with Comparisons by W.I. Pierce. What CLEMATIS can be used for? Indications and personality of CLEMATIS…


      CLEMATIS ERECTA – UPRIGHT VIRGIN’S BOWER.

Introduction

      Clematis (Kyeua, klema, a vine or tendril), so called from its long, lithe branches, belongs to the same family of plants as Pulsatilla and is, in many respects, similar in action to it. There are many varieties of clematis, but the erecta, which is a native of and grows most abundant in the south of France, is the most sweet-smelling of the species, is the one that was proved by Hahnemann and the only one found recorded in Allen’s Encyclop.

Symptoms

      There is a general aggravation at night and from heat under Clematis (8); a fear of being alone (80) but they are “disinclined to meet otherwise agreeable company” (Lippe), and it has been used with success for homesickness (119).

In the eye it is of value for iritis, whether from cold (74) or from syphilis (74), with aggravation of the pains at night, photophobia, lachrymation, pressing and burning pains in the eyes, and with great sensitiveness to cold air. (We can make a note that the sensitiveness of the eye to cold and to cold air is the reverse of what is usually found under the remedy.) It is also of value for pustular conjunctivitis (76), especially when complicated with eczema of the scalp.

Clematis is a good remedy for toothache, especially in the back teeth, and transiently better from holding cold water in the mouth (187) and from drawing cold air into the mouth (187). There is grumbling in the teeth during the day but great pain at night on lying down. There is also aggravation from the warmth of the bed (187) or from smoking (188). With the toothache there is often salivation and soreness of the gums, with a feeling as if the teeth were too long (187).

Clematis is a remedy affecting glandular structures and it is useful for swelling of the inguinal glands, with little pain during the day but with increased pain and sensitiveness to touch at night and from the warmth of the bed.

In cystitis it is of value when the neck of the bladder is involved, with burning pains (194) worse at the beginning of micturition, and with great difficulty in getting the flow started (200). There is a feeling of constriction of the urethra, the patient has to wait, and strain, and grunt before the urine will start and then it flows in a thin stream and stops before the bladder is emptied.

With this difficulty in beginning to urinate, there is dribbling (198) after e supposed that he had finished; in ways like this nature strive to strike a balance.

It would be a remedy useful in gonorrhoea, with the pain and difficulty in starting micturition, and Farrington speaks of it “in the beginning of inflammatory stricture.”

The testicles are inflamed, sensitive and swollen (188), with the pains worse at night and from heat of the bed or from warm applications (188). It is of great value for orchitis from cold or from a suppressed gonorrhoea (188) and for neuralgia of the spermatic cord (171), with drawing up of the r. testicle.

In the female sexual sphere there are marked points of difference between this remedy and Pulsatilla Clematis has menstruation too early and too profuse (135) and a corrosive leucorrhoea (126), associated, perhaps, with cancer of the uterus (202), with shooting pains running upwards to the breasts, noticed especially on urinating (126).

In the breasts we find hard nodular tumors (23), perhaps scirrhus, which are painful and sensitive to touch, with aggravation at night and Hering says, “worse during growing moon.”

Clematis is of value for a rheumatic constitution, with sprained pain and aching in muscles and joints, especially when the patient occasionally suffers from herpetic eruptions.

These eruptions, which are apt to become pustular, especially about the occiput, are worse on the hairy parts, reaching to the hair line on the back of the head (65), and are associated with corrosive secretions and great itching, which is worse from the warmth of the bed (1220 “from wet poultices” (Hering) “and from washing” (Lippe) (122).

It is of value for eczema of the hands (65) and for eczematous eruptions following suppressed gonorrhoea. The eczema of Clematis is put down as being worse during the increasing moon (141), Allen giving it. “sometimes moist (during the increasing moon), sometimes dry (during the waning moon).”

Dearborn says, “in chronic eruptions a monthly aggravation (said to be coincident with the new moon) is quite marked.:

I use clematis 3d.

Willard Ide Pierce
Willard Ide Pierce, author of Plain Talks on Materia Medica (1911) and Repertory of Cough, Better and Worse (1907). Dr. Willard Ide Pierce was a Director and Professor of Clinical Medicine at Kent's post-graduate school in Philadelphia.