CANNABIS SATIVA


Hahnemann’s proving symptoms of homeopathy remedy Cannabis Sativa from Materia Medica Pura, which Samuel Hahnemann wrote between 1811 to 1821…


(From vol. i, 3rd edit., 1830.)

(The fresh expressed juice of the tops of the floweringmale or female hemp-plant, mixed with equal parts of alcoho, and after standing some time the clear supernatant fluid decanted off.)

Hitherto only the seeds, generally (rubbed up with water) as emulsion, or decoction, have been used with advantage in the inflammatory stage of gonorrhoea, and in ancient times (by DODONAEUS, SYLVIUS, HERLIZ) in some kinds of jaundice. In the former case of the homoeopathic reason observed in the urinary organs after the administration of hemp to healthy persons, although no physician ever recognized this. The plant itself has only been used as a domestic remedy, but it was much employed in Persian country inns in order to relieve the fatigue of pedestrian travellers (CHARDON, Voyage en perse), for which it is truly homoeopathic as the following cannabis symptoms (269 to 275) demonstrate.

But we may employ the juice of hemp for curative purposes of much more importance in various diseases of the genital organs, of the chest, of the organs of the senses, &c. for which the following observations present the homoeopathic indications.

For a long time I employed the undiluted alcoholic tincture of cannabis, in the dose of the smallest portion of a drop; but the higher and the very highest yet made dilution and potency (X) of it develops the medicinal powers of this plant in a much greater degree.

{HAHNEMANN’s fellow-provers of cannabis were – FRANZ, GROSS, FR. HAHNEMANN, HEMPEL, HUGO, STAPF, TRINKS, HARTLAUB, AND WAHLE.

A few symptoms were taken from the following old-school sources:

HALLER, in Vicat, Mat. Medorrhinum

MORGAGNI, De Sed. Et Causis Morb.

NEUHOLD, in Actea Nat. Cur. iii.

OLEARIUS, Oriental, Reisebeschrieb.

RAMMAZANI, Diatribe de Morb. Artif.

The 1st Edit. Has only 69 symptoms, the 2nd Edit. Has 308, this 3rd Edit. 330.]

CANNABIS

Vertigo when standing and dizziness. [Gss.]

Vertigo when walking, as if he would fall sideways (aft. 1 h.). [Ho.]

Whirling and stupid in the head (immediately). [Gss.]

Giddy and dull in the head. [Ws.]

5. Attacks of vertigo. [NEUHOLD, (Effects of effluvia of hemp, before being dried.) in Actea Nat. Cur., iii, p. 150, et seq.]

Confusion and dulness of the head. [Stf.]

Hesitation and unsteadiness of the mind; overpowering vividnessof the thoughts that arise. [Hl.]

Wanting in reflective power, deficient in imagination, spiritless. [Stf.]

The thoughts seem to stand still; he stares before him; he feels as if his mind were occupied by elevated contemplations, but he does not know what they are; with a slight feeling of aching pain on the parietal bone. [Fz.]

10. He can, no doubt, think of one thing and another, but the ideas remain stationary, as if they stood still, and he looks long at the object on which he was going to work. [Fz.]

He often makes mistakes in writing. [Stf.]

Agreeable warmth in the brain. [Fz.]

Quivering as if in the blood of the head. Chest, and stomach.

Great rush of blood to the head.

15. Rush of blood to the head, which causes an agreeable warmth in it, but with aching pain in the temples. [Fz.]

Throbbing pain that extends forwards into the right temple; at the same time a warmth about the head; the cheeks are red and hot; in the warmth the nausea increases. [Ts. Hb.]

Violent pains in the head [NEUHOLD, l. c.]

Very penetrating headache. [NEUHOLD, l. c.]

Uninterrupted headache all day. [Fz.]

20. Constant pain on the top of the head, as if a stone lay on it. [Fz.]

Confusion of the head; it is heavy and she feels a painful pressure on the forehead and eyelids, so that they are like to close. [Gss.]

Pressure under the frontal protuberance too deep through the brain into the occiput. [Gss.]

When leaning the head against the wall an aching on the opposite side internally in the head. [Gss.]

Pressure in the temples. [Ho.]

25. Aching pain in the right occiputal bone.

Tension first in the occiput then in the sinciput, lastly in the temples (aft. ½ h.). [Ho.]

On moving the head a painful sensation in the head and nape. [Stf.]

Drawing pain in the occiput towards the ears. [Stf.]

Painful constriction of the sinciput. [Gss.]

30. The sinciput is compressed from the borders of the orbits to the temples; not relieved by stooping. [Gss.]

Below the left frontal protuberance a beating outwards, immediately followed by stupefying pressure on that part. [Gss.]

On a small spot of the parietal bone (afterwards on other parts of the head also) a cold feeling as if a drop of cold water fell on it [Gss.]

A creeping in the skin of the hairy scalp.

A kind of tickling spasm in the temples (aft. ¾ h.). [Ho.]

35. Feeling as if the eyebrow were pressed down. [Gss.]

Tearing pressure on the upper eyelid. [Gss.]

Alternate dilatation and contraction of thepupils in one and the same light (aft. 1 h.). [Ho.]

Weak feeling in the eyes, and weakness of vision; distant and near objects are indistinct (aft. 1.1/2 h.). [Ho.]

The cornea of the eye becomes opaque; pannus.

40. A circle of white flaming zig-zags on the right side of the field of vision; so that he can see objects only partially and indistinctly. [Gss.]

Cataract. (The original is “suffusioness oculorum,” and occurs in a list of the observed effects of hemp. Though technically this phrase may mean cataract (as in Celsus, seventh book, vii, 13, 14), yet it seems unlikely that the author means to hazard in this manner so startling an assertion as that hemp can cause it.) [NEUHOLD, l. c.]

Pressure outwards at the back of the eyes (aft. ¾ h.). [Ho.]

Sensation of spasmodic drawing in the eyes (aft. ¾ h.). [Ho.]

Slight palpitation on many parts of the face, especially in the muscles of the left cheek. [Gss.]

45. Paleness of the face [MORGAGNI, (Cases of disease occuring in adult male hemp-dressers, but not adduced as results of their occupation. This is merely a statement that the man was pale, but other wise in good health.) De Sed. Et Causis Morb. Epist. x, art. 13.]

Drawing pressure on the left zygoma. [Gss.]

Itching here and there in the face.

Formication, itching, and smarting as from salt, in the face.

Large lumps on the nose surrounded by red swelling, like acne.

50. Itching swelling on the ala nasi (aft. some h.).

Dryness in the nose.

Stupefying pressure as with a blunt point on the root of the nose. [Gss.]

Warm sensation in the nose as if it would bleed. [Fz.]

Epistaxis to syncope. (From the odour alone.) [NEUHOLD, l. c.]

55. Epistaxis.

Roaring before the ears.

Sensation as of a skin drawn before the ears. [Ws.]

Instantaneous pain as if the aurible were drawn out of the head. [Gss.]

Acute twitching pain in the right membrana tympani extending to the shoulder. [We.]

60. Sore pain in the external aural cartilage, which he might have somewhat pressed as he lay at night in bed. [Gss.]

Tinnitus aurium. [NEUHOLD, l. c.]

A throbbing in the ear.

In the ear a throbbing forcing pain that extends almost into the cheek, goes off immediately on stooping and recurs on rising up again (aft. 3 h.). [Stf.]

Stitches in the external meatus when chewing. [Gss.]

65. Fine stitches from within outwards in the left ear. [Ws.]

Pain behind the right ear as if a blunt point were violently thurst in. [Gss.]

Large sharp stitches on the mastoid process. [Gss.]

Stupefying compressive pain on the left side of the chin, in which the teeth of that side participate. [Gss.]

Cramp-like pain in the teeth on the left side of the lower jaw. [Fz.]

70. Fine pecking in the left ramus of the lower jaw, on the cessation of which a drawing always ensues. [Gss.]

A darting and fine pecking in several teeth at the same time. [We]

Eruption on the red part of the lips and on the corner of the mouth.

Pinching aching in the cervical muscles over the throat. [Gss.]

Speech aching in the cervical muscles over the throat. [Gss.]

Speech is difficult. (In subject of S. 223, q. v.) [MORGAGNI, l. c., Epist. xv, art. 6.]

75. Altered speech more a clangour than a human vioce. (Local effect.) [MORGAGNI, l. c. Epist. vii. Art. 13.]

He could not speak properly; at one time words failed him, at another the voiitself (for 4 hours); towards eveningthe attacks recurred, at one time there was a stream of eloquence, as if forced from him, at another a stoppage in his discourse, so that he sometimes repeated the same word ten times in succession in one breath, sometimes anxiously recalling his whole thought he was annoyed that he could not repeat it in the same words. [Fz.]

The speech is given out with extraordinary anxiety and agony on account of pain in the back. [Fz.]

In the morning burning dryness in the palate.

A burning in the throat. (See note to S. 74.) [MORGAGNI, l. c., Epist. xv., art. 6.]

80. Dryness in the mouth; the saliva is viscid, at the same time want of thirst especially in the evening, and hot hands. [Stf.]

On partaking of food that he relishes highly, there occurs, when he is nearly satiated, a transient sickness up in his throat.[Gss.]

Belching of a bitter-sour acrid fluid.[Gss.]

Without nausea or retching, a tasteless water rises up in his throat and wind-pipe so that he always chokes in swallowing. [Gss.]

Samuel Hahnemann
Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) was the founder of Homoeopathy. He is called the Father of Experimental Pharmacology because he was the first physician to prepare medicines in a specialized way; proving them on healthy human beings, to determine how the medicines acted to cure diseases.

Hahnemann's three major publications chart the development of homeopathy. In the Organon of Medicine, we see the fundamentals laid out. Materia Medica Pura records the exact symptoms of the remedy provings. In his book, The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure, he showed us how natural diseases become chronic in nature when suppressed by improper treatment.