(Menispermum cocculus.)
(From vol. I, 3rd edit., 1830.)
(The tincture prepared by macerating the powdered seeds at a moderate temperature in twenty parts of spirits of wine.)
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 (like staphisagria) first employed by myself as a medicine after I had ascertained its dynamic effects on the healthy human body. It possesses many curative virtues, as the following symptoms produced by it show, and the tincture prescribed according to the similarity of effect in high attenuation and potency is indispensible for the cure in many cases of common human diseases, more especially in some kinds of lingering nervous fevers, in several so-called spasms in the abdomen, and so-called spasmodic pains of other parts, where the mental state is one of extreme sadness, particularly in the female sex, in not a few attacks of paralysis of the limbs, and in the emotional derangements resembling those that cocculus can itself produce.
Camphor is its principal antidote.
The duration of its action depends on the nature of the disease in which it is used; it quickly passes in acute, but lasts many days in chronic diseases.
[ HAHNEMANN was helped in this proving by BAEHR, FLAMING, GROSS, HAYNEL, HORNBURG, LANGHAMMER, TRINKS and HARTLAUB (from their R.A.M.L.), WAHLE.
The old-school authorities quoted are:
AMATUS LUSITANUS, Cent. iv.
JOHN HILL, Hist. of the Mat. Medorrhinum
RUMPF, Ambcin., v.
In the Fragmenta there are 162 symptoms of cocculus, in the 1st edit. Of the R.A.M.L.
230, in the 2nd edit. 554, and in this last edition 557.]
COCCULUS
Vertigo as of intoxication and stupid feeling in the forehead, as if he had a board before the head. [Gss.]
Attack of vertigo as from intoxication (when sitting) (aft. 1.3/4 h.). [Lr.]
Tendency to vertigo (the 8th d.). [Hnl.]
Vertigo for six hours.
5. When he rises up in bed, there occur whirling vertigo and sickness, which compel him to lie down again.
A sick headache, just as if he had taken an emetic, with nausea.
Stupid in the head.
Stupidity in the head with cold sweat on the forehead and hands and aversion from food and drink.
Distraction (want of memory); he easily forgets something he had just thought of. (This S. occurs almost identically in Hb. And Ts. ‘R.A.M.L.’ [Gss.]
10. Stupidity and confusion of the head, increased by reading, so that he must read a passage several times over in order to understand it. [Hnl.]
Heaviness in the head. [Hnl.]
Feeling as if something heavy lay on the head, but without pain. [We.]
Thinking tries his head much. [Hnl.]
In the morning confusion of the head; there is a humming in it, as after a debauch the previous night.
15. Heaviness and confusion of the head, as after a debauch the day before.
Cloudiness of the head, chiefly aggravated by eating and drinking.
Pain in the head as if it were bound up.
Headache as if the brain were constricted.
Headache in the temples, as if the head were screwed in.
20. (Painful shock in the brain when walking, moving the head and speaking.)
A headache compounded of constriction, burning, tearing, digging and boring.
A violent aching through the whole head, chiefly in the forehead (in the forenoon), which increases to unconsciousness by reading and thinking (aft. 60 h.).
Aching headache in the sinciput. [We.]
Aching headache in the vertex (aft. 10 h.). [Hbg.]
25. Dull compression in the right half of the forehead. [Gss.]
Pressive pain in the head, as if the brain were compressed (aft. 5 h.). [Lr.]
In the right temple a pressing inwards as from a blunt body slowly pressed deep into the brain. [Gss.]
In the left temple, a pressing inwards. [Gss.]
Violent pressing downwards in the whole head, especially in the forehead, increased by walking (aft. 6.1/2 h.). [Lr.]
30. In the left half of the forehead, a dull undulating compression. [Gss.]
Tearing throbbing headache in the forehead in the evening (from 7 to 9 o’clock) (aft. 38 h.)
Frequent attacks of headache lasting some minutes on a small spot in the left frontal protuberance, at first if raging, throbbing shooting pain, which then spreads to the right frontal protuberance as a formication and there goes off.
A fine shooting in the temples.
A severe stitch in the head above the right eye (aft. 12 h.).
35. Several stitches in the right side of the brain. (aft. 24 h.). [Hnl.]
Intermitting boring needle-pricks in the right frontal region.[Lr.]
Fine needle-pricks in the left temple (aft. 6 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.