EUPHRASIA Medicine


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


      EYEBRIGHT.

Introduction

      (euphrasia delight, good cheer “as to its effects upon the spirits through its benefit to the sight” Millspaugh.)

Euphrasia was first proved by Hahnemann.

For many centuries Euphrasia had enjoyed a great reputation in the cure of all diseases of the eyes, including senile blindness, and poets have sung its praises as an eye-opener, Milton saying :

“The purged with euphrasy and rue The visual nerve; for he had much to see.” -Paradise Lost.

but since the days of Hahnemann and scientific medicine, we know that there cannot be a specific for all diseases, even of the eye, and have learned in what class of cases Euphrasia is of value.

Symptoms

      It is a catarrhal remedy, with special reference to the mucous membrane of the eyes and nose. In a few words, this is the general picture: In the eyes, redness, soreness and burning, with profuse lachrymation, which bites or excoriates. In the nose, frequent irritation to sneeze, with a profuse flow of water from the nose, which does not excoriate.

Euphrasia is a valuable and frequently indicated remedy in catarrhal conjunctivitis (73), characterized by a free discharge of matter, which is acrid and makes the lids red and sore. The discharge may be thin, or thick and yellow, but it is acrid, and many superficial inflammations of the eyes and lids are successfully treated by Euphrasia when there is this acrid discharge. A very prominent characteristic of the remedy is the tendency to an accumulation of sticky mucus on the cornea, which is removed by frequent winking (78).

Euphrasia is very valuable in many cases of acute cold in the eyes and nose, with acrid water from the eyes, while the discharge from the nose is generally bland, and it is frequently indicated in profuse fluent coryza (37), with this opposite character of the discharge from the eyes and nose.

A question that is often asked, and it has been demanded by the State Board, is the differentiation between the coryzas of Allium cepa and Euphrasia? The former, you will recall, has an excoriating discharge from the nose and a bland discharge from the eyes, while in Euphrasia it is just the reverse.

As these reverse propositions are at times confusing, unless we have some fixed point from which to start, I take as my starting point in his instance, Euphrasia, or the three E’s, Euphrasia Excoriates the Eyes.

There is found under Euphrasia a form of coryza, with sneezing, running from the eyes and nose, in fact with all the evidences, except fever, of a fresh and severe cold developing. This may last for an hour or perhaps two, when it will pass away entirely, only to reappear and disappear as quickly later in the day. This condition may continue indefinitely unless you give Euphrasia or Agaricus, as these are the only remedies, that I know of, useful in this form of neurosis.

We may have cough in Euphrasia, with free expectoration. The cough begins in the morning on rising and continues throughout the day, but not troubling the patient at night. Usually, with the cough, the characteristic symptoms of influenza are present.

It is a remedy frequently indicated in the beginning of measles. with inflammation of the eyes, photophobia, running from the nose, cough, etc.

I use Euphrasia in the tincture.

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.