COCCULUS INDICUS, INDIA BERRIES. (Cocculus, diminutive of coccus, kokkos, kokkos, a berry.).
Introduction
Hahnemann, who first proved Cocculus, says: “This vegetable substance, hitherto only used for the purpose of destroying some noxious vermin and for stupefying fish so that they may be taken by the hand, was first employed by myself as a medicine after I had ascertained its dynamic effects on the healthy human body.”
The ancients used these berries to stupefy fish; they were scattered on the water, and the fish after eating them, would become dizzy and lie motionless on the surface, so that they were easily caught. The moderns, at least in England, use Cocculus for the adulteration of beer, as it not only prevents secondary fermentation, but it also hastens stupefaction in the human fish, the intoxication that it produces being first noticed in the motor tract. Picrotoxin is the active principle contained in the berry, which acts as the intoxicating poison.
Symptoms
Cocculus produces violent convulsions and loss of control and paralysis of muscles; it produces excessive nausea and vertigo.
There is in Cocculus a general tendency to paralysis, heaviness and sluggishness of the whole body, and numbness (146); sometimes trembling (192) and jerking (193) of various groups of muscles, and at times unconquerable drowsiness.
There is general hyperaesthesia of all the senses (166), an intolerance of the least excitement and a general sensitiveness to both cold and warm air (5) and an aggravation from fresh or cold air (5). Keeping this latter fact in mind we will be enabled to differentiate this from other remedies having, in other respects, many similar symptoms.
Vertigo as if intoxicated (207) is an almost constant concomitant of Cocculus symptoms. This vertigo is worse rising up in bed or from a chair (207), and better from lying down, generally with a feeling of stupefaction of head, numbness and unsteadiness of the extremities and nausea.
Cocculus is a remedy useful for the general bad effects of prolonged insomnia (8), and for diseases caused by “over-study, overexertion, dissipation and disappointed ambitions” (Tal-cott); it is useful for nervous exhaustion (156), with pronounced weakness of the extremities, which feel as if asleep (71), and with a weak, empty feeling in the chest (30) or abdomen (179), or a Talcott says, in mental conditions, “a delusion that his organs are hollow; something this delusion relates to the head, or the chest, or the abdomen.”
It is useful in spasmodic affections, notably hysteria and especially menstrual hysteria (120), with weakness and numbness of the extremities; in chorea (31), especially when the patient is exhausted; and in epilepsy (66) characterized by cold extremities (71) and numbness (146).
Mentally we find Cocculus adapted to cases which present a condition of stupidity; they are slow of comprehension, or cannot think of the words with which to express themselves, the mind feels benumbed (91), they are depressed and easily offended and are troubled with vertigo and nausea. It is useful for mental derangements resulting from suppression of the menses (135) and for the “Ill effects of anger and grief” (Hering).
The headaches of Cocculus are frequently seated in the occiput (100), the pain extending down the spine; they are worse from any external impression (95), from eating (95) and drinking, from cold air (93) and from sleep (97), and are associated with constant nausea and vomiting (97). We may have a sensation as if the head were compressed by a band (105).
It is our most valuable remedy as a prophylactic against car-sickness, or for sick headache caused by riding or reading in the cars (97). I do not recall a single failure with it when used in the 30th for two days before taking a trip on a steam railroad, including southern roads.
Nausea and even vomiting are almost constant concomitants of a Cocculus condition. There is an extreme aversion to the sight of food (6), with persistent qualmishness and bitter, metallic (186) or putrid taste. The nausea is provoked by eating, or even by the smell of food (6), by drinking, motion or becoming cold. It has proved of value in the nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (153), especially when associated with the vertigo of the remedy.
Colic is frequent in Cocculus, twisting, flatulent colic, only slightly better by passing flatus (175); the attacks come on about midnight (176) and have as accompaniments, a feeling of emptiness in the stomach (170) and abdomen, and nausea and vomiting. It is useful for flatulent colic during pregnancy (152), for gastralgia due to the suppression of the menses from
other causes (135) and for the excessive distention of the abdomen when associated with dysmenorrhoea (138).
It is a valuable remedy in hernias, umbilical and especially inguinal (114), and it is particularly indicated when the abdominal muscles are weak and it seems as if a hernia would easily take place; worse on the r. side.
The diarrhoea of Cocculus is brought on by riding in cars or carriages, or from drinking cold water (57), with flatulent colic, a feeling as of sharp stones rubbing together in the abdomen (180), relieved by a movement or the passage of flatus. Along with the diarrhoea we have numbness of the legs, bilious vomiting and vertigo.
Menstruation is usually too early and too profuse (135), gushing (137) and very exhausting (138) and associated with flatulent colic (138), as from sharp stones, pains worse from motion and on breathing, along with the vertigo and the nausea of the remedy. In suppression of the menses (139), we have many mental symptoms of depression and sadness, with flatulent colic (138) and a purulent gushing leucorrhoea (126) that takes the place of the menses (126).
A symptom found in hysteria, is dyspnoea as from constriction of the throat (25), chest or stomach.
Of the effect of Cocculus on the special senses, Dunham says, that the “most marked action is exhibited in the voluntary muscular system, paralysis more or less complete being produced in the eyelids, and in the muscles of the face, the tongue, the pharynx, and of the extremities, particularly of the lower extremities.”
We have great weakness of the cervical and dorsal muscles, with heaviness of the head, relieved by leaning the head back- ward; this weakness is often found is often found in spinal irritation (71), with great hyperaesthesia of the senses (166). The knees are weak (125) and he totters when walking; the feet and hands are alternately asleep (71) and the feet fall asleep when sitting. It is to be though of in paralysis of the extremities, the symptoms preceded by convulsive movements of groups of muscles.
In the intermittent fever calling for Cocculus we have during the chill flatulent colic, nausea and disgust at the smell of food. The chill may be only partial, the lower extremities being cold while the head is hot, or the chilly stage may mingle with the febrile stage, and the latter may be imperfectly developed. During the chill no relief is obtained from external heat, and during the fever, as well as with chill, there is intolerance of both cold and warm air.
The sweat is general, being cold on the face, and the attack is followed by extreme debility.
Cocculus is to be thought of in low types of malarial fever, in typhoid, rheumatic and relapsing fevers, the “slow, sneaking, nervous forms” (H. C. Allen), with intense headache at the base of the occiput, vertigo, with sensation of emptiness or hollowness in the head, nausea “as if the stomach were always nauseated” (H. C. Allen), faintness, great difficulty in collecting his ideas and numbness of the extremities.
Coffea cr. is incompatible with Cocculus.
I use Cocculus 30th.
