DULCAMARA


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


(Solanum dulcamara, Woody Night-shade.)

(The juice freshly expressed from the young stalks and leaves of this shrub-like plant before its flowering time, mixed with equal parts of spirits of win. Two drops of the clear fluid lying over the sediment are added to 98 drops of spirits of wine, the phila shaken with two strokes of the arm, and in this way diluted through 29 phials (filled two third full with 100 drops of spirits of wine), and each potentized with two succussions up to the decillion-fold development of power; one or two smallest globules moistened with this serve for a dose.)

It is very probable, as experiments have indeed partly that this very powerful plant belongs to the antipsorics, as the following pure effects of it seem also to show; still, I shall try to obtain more accurate corroboration of this.

It will morever be found specific for some epidemic fevers, as also for various acute diseases the result of a chill.

Its long duration of action is shown in its trials on healthy persons.

[AHNER, CUBITZ, GROSS, MULLER, of TREUEN, NENNING (in HARTLAUB and TRINKS’ Mat. Medorrhinum), E. F. RUCKERT, STAPF, TRINKS and HARTLAUB (in their Mat. Medorrhinum), GUST, WAGNER, WAHLE, aided HAHNEMANN in this proving.

Symptoms quoted from the following old-school authorities:

ALTHOF, in Murray, Appar. Medorrhinum

CARRERE, Ueber das Bittersuss, 1789.

FRITZE, Annal d. Klin. Ins. In Berlin, iii.

GOUAN, Memoires de la Soc. De Montpellier.

HAEN, DE, Ratio Medendi.

LINNAEUS, Diss. de Dulcamara. Upsal., 1753.

PIQUOT, Samml. br. Abh. f. pr. A., ii.

STARCKE, in Carrere, l. c.

TODE (reference not given).

In the 1st edit. Of the ‘R.A.M.L.’ dulcamara had 123 symptoms, in the 2nd edit. 349, and in this last edit. 401; the Chr. Kr. gives 409.]

DULCAMARA

A transient slight vertigo. [Ng.]

At noon before eating, whilst walking, giddy, as if all objects remained standing before him, and as if it became black before his eyes.

Momentary vertigo. [PIQUOT, (From vol. I, 3rd edit., 1830.) in samml. br. Abh. f. pr. A., ii, 4.]

Vertigo [ALTHOF, (Statement from observation.) in Murray, Appar. Medorrhinum, I, p. 621.]

5. When he wanted to get up out of bed in the morning, he almost fell from vertigo, general weakness and trembling of all the body (aft. 24 h.). [Mr.]

Stupefaction. [CARRERE, (Carrere’s original work is “Traite des properties, usages, et effets de la Douceamere,” Paris, 1789. The citations have been corrected from this treatise. They consist of effects of dulcamara when given for chronic rheumatism, suppressed secretions, and cutaneous diseases. The author says that he has after seventeen year’s experience with the drug; seen no inconvenience result from full doses save those described in S. 88 and 278; 199; 395, 358 (sometimes the precursors of a new eruption, and then associated with 341 and 342); 11 and 65; and 94.) Ueber das Bittersuss, v. Staracke, Jen., 1786.]

Great stupefaction of the head. [STARCKE, (Carrere’s german translator. Additional observations (of the same kind) by him.) in Carrere, l. c.]

Dull stupefying headache.

Headache in the morning in bed, aggravated by rising. [Mr.]

10. Headache, lassitude, icy coldness of all the body, and inclination to vomit. [Mr.]

Heaviness of the head. [CARRERE, l. c.]

Heaviness in the forehead (aft. 12 h.). [We.]

Heaviness in the forehead for several days, at the same time frequent darts from within outwards in the temporal region. [We.]

Heaviness in the occiput, for three days. [We.]

15. Heaviness of the whole head all day, as if the integuments of the head were stretched, especially in the nape, where the sensation becomes a kind of formication. [We.]

Heaviness of the head, with out-boring pain in the temple and forehead, as after a debauch overnight. [Wr.]

Stupid feeling in the head, as after intoxication, which went off in the open air. [Wr.]

Stupid and empty in the head, in the afternoon about 6 o’clock. [Ng.]

Stupid feeling in the head and slight drawing in the left frontal protuberance. [Ng.]

20. The stupid headache lasted for 10 days. [Ng.]

Giddiness in the head with warmth rising up into the whole face. [Ng.]

Heat in the head. [CARRERE, l. c.]

Digging aching in the whole of the forehead. [Gss.]

Violent headache like a digging in the middle of the brain in the sinciput, like dulness, and a sensation as if the brain were swollen, a pain that came on early in bed, and was not diminished or increased either by rest or movement; but it was worse on getting up. [Mr.]

25. Out-boring headache at one time in the forehead, at another in the temples (aft. 15 h.). [Wr.]

Before midnight boring headache from within, [We.]

Boring headache in the right temple (aft. 23 h.). [We.]

The headache never involves the whole head, but only quite a small spot, where it shows itself as pressure as with a blunt instrument. [Gss.]

All the afternoon a dull headache, especially in the left frontal protuberance. [Ng.]

30. In the evening the dull pressive headache became more severe, with increasing coryza. [Ng.]

30. In the evening the dull pressive headache became more severe, with increasing coryza. [Ng.]

Painful stupefying aching in the left side of the vertex (aft. 3 h.). [Ng.]

Aching stupefying pain in the occiput, from the nape upwards. [Rkt.]

In the temples a pressure, as with a blunt instrument, at one time on the right, at another on the left side. [Gss.]

Dull feeling in the forehead and root of the nose, as if he had a board in front of the head. [Gss.]

35. Towards evening, when walking in the open air, headache like a pressing outwards. [We.]

Quite late in the evening out-pressing pain in the left frontal protuberance. [Ng.]

Out-pressing pain in jerks in the sinciput, worse when moving. [Ng.]

Drawing pressure in the left frontal protuberance (6th d.). [Ng.]

Aching drawing in the left temporal region, in the afternoon. [Ng.]

40. Headache, drawing from both temples inwards. [We.]

Aching tearing in the temples in fits. [Gss.]

Aching beating in the left side of the forehead with whirling feeling. [Ng.]

Tearing compression in the top of the head. [Gss.]

Intermitting tearing in the left temple. [Gss.]

45. Stitches in the head, so that she got angry over it, mostly in the evening; relieved when lying.

A very slow pricking in the occiput, as with a needle, that was always drawn back again. [We.]

Deep in the brain violent shooting in the sinciput, with nausea. [Mr.]

Intermitting pressure on the left of the crown, as if a blunt instrument were pressed into the head. [Gss.]

Sensation as if the occiput were enlarged. [We.]

50. Pressing pain in the left occiputal bone. [We.]

Headache in the occiput, in the evening in bed.[We.]

Slow drawing pain through the whole brain, especially in the evening (aft. ¼ h.).

In the evening when eating a drawing pain on the skull to the nasal bones, where to became contractive.[We.]

From the frontal protuberance there is a drawing down to the tip of the nose in rapid jerks. [Gss.]

55. A slight drawing in the left frontal protuberance, especially on stooping forwards. [Ng.]

On the head, just over the left ear, a stupefying pain, as if some one pressed with a blunt instrument into the head. [Gss.]

On the forehead lumps, touching which causes shooting pain.

Aching tensive pain over the right eye (aft. 3 h.). [Wr.]

Boring pain over the right palpebral arch from within outwards.

60. Contractive pain at the supra-orbital border. [Gss.]

Aching in the eyes when reading and at other times, but aggravated by reading. [Rkt.]

When she walks in the sun it is as if fire flew out of the eyes, as also in the room.

Sparks before the eyes. [PIQUOT, l. c.]

Commencement of amaurosis and such weakness of the eyes that he saw al objects, both ear and distant, as if through a veil; the upper lid was as if half paralysed, as if it would fall down. [Mr.]

65. Dim vision. (With S. 11.)[CARRERE, l. c.]

Inflammation of the eyes (chemosis). [TODE, (Cannot be traced for want of reference.) – STARCKE, l. c.]

Painless pressure on the left zygoma (immediately). [Gss.]

Ringing in the ears. [Rkt.]

Ringing in the ears.

70. Clear ringing in the ears. (a. 4 to 8 d.). [Stf.]

A kind of pricking in the left ear and then in the right, as if every cold air had penetrated into the ear. [We.]

Tearing in the left ear intermingled with shooting from within outwards; a drumming and bubbling before the ear, he does not hear well afterwards; on opening the mouth a cracking in the ear as if something broken were in it. [Ts. Hb.]

Squeezing pain in the left ear, at the same time great nausea. [Ts. Hb.]

Frightful earache all night, he cannot sleep on account of it. In the morning the pain ceased all at once, but there remained a roaring before the ear for some time. [Ts. Hb.]

75. In the left ear, a pinching stitch towards the membrana tympani. [We.]

Fine pricks in the meatus auditorious and parotid gland. [Rt., senr.]

Squeezing, accompanied by small pricks, in the right ear. [We.]

Transient drawing in the external meatus. [Gss.]

Below the left ear, towards the ramus of the lower jaw, a cramp-like contraction. [Gss.]

80. There occurred such a violent bleeding of the nose that the blood lost amounted to four ounces; it was bright red, flowed very warm out of the left nostril, with a pressure continued after the profuse haemorrhage. [Ng.]

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.