(Long-leaved Water Hemlock.)
(From vol. vi, 2nd edit., 1826.)
(The freshly expressed juice from the root gathered when the plant is commencing to flower, mixed with equal parts of alcohol.)
The following symptoms can only be regarded as a commencement of a thorough proving of the peculiar effects of this powerful plant in the altering the human health.
Further and more complete provings will show that it is useful in rare cases where no other remedy is homoeopathically suited, and particularly in chronic cases, for I have seen its effects last for three weeks, even when given in small doses.
Traditional medicine has never made any internal use of cicuta virosa; for when cicuta was prescribed, as it was very often some years ago, it was actually conium maculatum that was meant by that name.
The juice of cicuta was used only for external application in preparing the cicuta plaster on LINNEUS’S recommendation, particularly by the Danish Pharmacopoeia (Empl, de cicuta, Pharm. Dan.). It was applied for the purpose of allaying gouty pains.
The juice of fresh root (for it has little action when dried) is so powerful that ordinary practitioners did not dare (“Nec, ulli austor essum, ut interno usui dicaret,” say MURRAY (Apparat. Medicam., tom. I, 2nd edit., p. 402.) to give it internally in their accustomed big doses, and consequently had to do without it and its curative power altogether.
Homoeopathy alone knows how to employ with advantage this powerfully remedial juice in the decillion-fold dilution (30th dilution).
[In this proving HAHNEMANN had the assistance of his son FRIEDRICH HAHNEMANN, HORNBURG, and LANGHAMMER.
The only authorities of traditional medicine quoted are:
ALLEN, Synopsis.
Bresl. Samml., 1727.
WEPFER, De cicuta aquat.
The number of symptoms is the same in both Editions.]
CICUTA VIROSA
In the morning after rising from bed, confusion of the head.
Stupid and dazed (after 10 m.). [Fr. H-n.]
Stupid in the head, with rigor; at the same time the neck felt stiff and the muscles too short. [Fr. H-n.]
Absence of thought, difficulty of recollecting himself, deprivation of the senses. [WEPFER, De cicuta aquat., (Two boys and six girls are largely of it. (Quite half of the symptoms referred by HAHNEMANN to the authority are not to be found, after the most diligent search, in his pages.) and ALLEN Synopsis. (Poisoning of four children.)
5. Intoxication, staggering. [WEPFER, l. c.]
When walking, vertigo, as though he would fall forward to the left (aft. 72 h.). [Lr.]
On stooping he feels as if he would fall head – foremost (aft. 80 h.). [Lr.]
Vertigo, staggering. (Not found.) [WEPFER, l. c.]
Staggering and swaying when walking (aft. 82 h.). [Lr.]
10. When sitting, standing, and walking, he is as if intoxicated (aft. 5 m.). [Fr. H-n.]
All objects appear to him round in a circle, especially when he is seated – for many hours (aft. 2 h.). [Fr. H-n.]
Objects seem to him to move hither and thither, from one side to the other, although they all retain their right shape (aft. 10 m.). [Fr. H-n.]
She thinks she must place or seat herself more firmly, because she sees nothing steady or firm about her, and she consequently thinks that she herself is unsteady; everything dazzles her (aft. 15 m.). [Fr. H-n.]
She imagines she is swaying to one side or another, or that the objects around her are moving to and fro; it seems to her that nothing is standing still, but that everything swings backwards and forwards like a pendelum. [Fr. H-n.]
15. When she has to stand still, she wishes she could lay hold of something, because the objects seem at one time to come near her and then again to recede from her. [Fr. H-n.]
Staggering, so that she thinks she must fall (aft. 6 h.). [Fr. H-n.]
Vertigo; he fell to the ground. [WEPFER, and ALLEN, l. c.]
He is always inclined to fall to the ground. [WEPFER, l. c.]
He fell to the ground without saying a word. [WEPFER, l. c.]
20. He falls to the ground and rolls about. [WEPFER, l. c.]
A hammering pain in the forehead, from noon till evening (aft. 2 h.). [Fr. H-n.]
Anxiety in the head. [Fr. H-n.]
Stupefied and heavy in the head (aft. 74 h.). [Lr.]
Heaviness in the head when sitting. [Hbg.]
25. In the morning on waking, headache, just as if the brain were loose and shook when walking; when he set himself to think what sort of pain it was exactly, it was gone.
Headache pressing together from both sides. [Hbg.]
Aching in the left frontal bone. [Hbg.]
Pressive, stupefying headache externally on the forehead, more when at rest (aft. 1, 36 h.). [Lr.]
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.
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