GUAIACUM


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


(From vol. iv, 2nd edit., 1825.)

(The alcoholic solution of the inspissated juice of the West Indian tree Guanicum officinale, which consists chiefly of resin..)

The homoeopathic physician will find even in these few symptoms a sufficient guide to enable him to make a sure curative employment of this vegetable substance in morbid states for which it is suitable by similarity, and to prevent him from being misguided by the vague and misleading recommendations of it in gout and rheumatism by the imaginary name of a disease, instead of attending only to the similarity of the symptoms of the disease to be cured on the one hand, with those of the remedy on the other.

One drop of the alcoholic tincture stirred u[ in one ounce of water, in which the small quantity for a reason it contains is completely dissolved by shaking, is quite sufficient for a dose; in some cases, indeed, I will be found rather too strong.

[HAHNEMANN’s fellow-provers were HARTMANN, LANGHAMMER, TEUTHORN.

He obtained a few symptoms from the following old-school authorities:

BANG, tagebucher de frid. Krankenhauses in Copenhagen, 1784, Sept. 13.

MATTHIOLI, de Morbo Gallico, 1537.

WHITE, WILL., in Edinb. Medorrhinum Comment., iv.

In the 1st edit. Guaiac has 142 symptoms, in this 2nd edit. 3 additional symptoms; the Chr. Kr. gives 160.]

GUAIACUM

Weakness of memory; what he has just read he knew nothing about; old names he completely forgot. [Trn.]

In the morning when standing (during breakfast) absence of throught; he remains standing at one spot, and stares right in front of him without thinking. [Trn.]

Violent coarse stitches outwards in the brain (aft. 2 h.).

Nocturnal headache, like a pressure from below upwards in the brain.

5. In the morning headache, as if brain were loose, an moved at every step.

Painless pressure in the left temple. [Htn.]

Painful pressure, as with something broad, in the right temple [Htn.]

Aching and pressing in the anterior part of the forehead. [Htn.]

From the left side of the nape to over the vertex an obtuse aching pain going up obliquely and terminating superiorly in a stitch (aft. 1 h.). [Htn.]

10. A dull aching pain in the head, that ends with a sharp stitch in the right frontal eminence. [Htn.]

Aching headache across the forehead (aft. 10 h.). [Lr.]

Aching, drawing, tearing stitch in the right side of the head going towards the frontal bone. [Htn.]

Dull, stitch-like pressure in the right frontal eminence. [Htn.]

Dull drawing stitches from the left parietal bone to the left frontal eminence, which at last terminate together in a single stitch, after having taken in a greater extent. [Htn.]

15. Drawing pain from the middle of the frontal bone down into the nasal bones. (aft. 2.1/2 h.). [Htn.]

Drawing pain in the anterior part of the forehead. [Htn.]

Drawing tearing in the occiput and forehead. [Htn.]

Tearing in the whole of the left side of the head. [Htn.]

Tearing in the right side of the occiput. [Htn.]

20. An external headache, as if there were too much blood in the external blood-vessels of the head, and the head were swollen (when sitting). [Trn.]

External pulse-like throbbing headache, with shooting on the temples, which goes off by external pressure, but returns afterwards, is relieved by walking, but aggravated by sitting and standing (aft. 3 h.). [Trn.]

A tearing externally on the left temple(aft. ¾ h.). [Htn.]

Tearing from the left side of the head at the junction of the parietal and frontal bones. [Htn.]

25. Obtuse painful stitches on the left side of the occiput. [Htn.]

In the right eye-brow a hard pimple with a white apex, which is very painful when touched as if sore, and as when a wound is touched.

Eye-gum in both canthi of the right eye(aft. 1 h.). [Lr.]

Dilatation of the pupils (aft. 3 h.). [Trn.]

Amaurosis for some days. [WILL. WHITE, (Observation. – The writer is speaking of a hysterical patient. He states that any sudden surprise will make her speechless for an hour or so, and that guaiacum always causes loss of her sight for some hours (not “days”). In Edinb. Medorrhinum Comment., iv, p. 327.]

Single, painful stitches I the right zygomatic process. [Htn.]

Painful, red swelling of the face, for some days. (In a woman aged 48, is affected with arthritis of hands and feet, from a table-spoonful of the aqueous solution every 3 hours for a month; as the arthritis improved this symptom appeared, followed by S. 70.) [BANG, Tagebucher des frid. Krankenhauses, 1784, Sept. 13.]

Dull, almost spasmodic drawing in the right cheek muscles (in the morning on rising). [Htn.]

Knife thrusts in the right cheek muscles (aft. 1 h.). [Lr.]

35. Tearing in the outer border of the left ear cartilage. [Htn.]

Tearing in the left ear. [Htn.]

Earache in the left ear. [Htn.]

In the nose a pimple with sore pain.

(Dull, aching pain in the left lower jaw.) [Htn.]

40. On the left side of the lower jaw, a drawing pain that ended in a stitch. [Htn.]

Tearing in the upper molar teeth of the left side. [Htn.]

On biting an aching pain in the left upper molars. [Htn.]

Great hunger, in the afternoon and evening (aft. 7.1/2, 9 h.) [Lr.]

Anorexia from disgust at everything, eructation of wind, and flat taste in the mouth, together with a mucous expectoration by hawking and jacking cough. [Trn.]

45. Eructation (immediately). [Htn.]

Eructation of wind, empty eructation. [Htn.]

Constrictive sensation in the region of the stomach, which impedes the breathing and causes anxiety (aft. 19 h.). [Htn.]

In the scrobiculus cordis, a feeling of frequently recurring pressure, which impedes breathing and causes oppression and anxiety (aft. 1 h.). [Htn.]

Stitches in the left subcostal region. [Htn.]

50. Single dull stitches in the left epigastrium. [Htn.]

Rumbling with dull pinching pain in the abdomen, which always extends more backwards, whereupon flatus is discharge (aft. 1 h.). [Htn.]

Grumbling in the abdomen, as from emptiness, in the afternoon (aft. 5 h.). [Lr.]

Rumbling in the abdomen (aft. 10 h.). [Lr.]

Dull, pinching pain in the hypogastrium, that always sinks deeper backwards (aft. ¼ h.). [Htn.]

55. Pinching in the abdomen, as from displaced flatulence, which extended backwards, whereupon flatus was discharged. [Htn.]

Pinching in the abdomen on the left side of the navel, on a single point (aft. 3.1/2 h.). [Htn.]

Pinching in the abdomen followed by thin, slimy stool (immediately). [Htn.]

During inspiration, pinching cutting bellyache transversely through the abdomen. [Htn.]

A constant quivering in the inner abdominal muscles of the right side, close to the os ilii. [Htn.]

60. Pain in the groin as from an inguinal hernia.

The first day, constipation; the second and third days, costiveness. [Trn.]

Rather soft, broken up stool. [Htn.]

Frequent urging to urinate with scanty discharge of urine at a time (aft. 5.1/2 h.). [Lr.]

Constant urging to urinate, and every time he passes much urine. [Htn.]

65. He had frequent calls to pass water, and immediately after doing so he had again urging to urinate, and after the urine was passed stitches in the neck of the bladder followed. [Trn.]

He must urinate every half hour, and he passes much urine, and when he has passed it he has again urging to urinate for fully a minute, whereby only a few drops come away. [Trn.]

Cutting during micturition, as if something acrid came away.

At night, emission of semen without voluptuous dreams (aft. 20 h.). [Lr.]

Increased flow of mucus from the vagina.

70. Profuse discharge of a watery fluid from the nose, for a month. [BANG, l. c.]

A crawling in the chest.

Stitches in the left side of the chest, more towards the back, under the true ribs. [Htn.]

Shudder in the breasts.

On the chest, in the region of the scrobiculus cordis, a sort of stoppage or stagnation seizes her suddenly even in the night during sleep as if she could not get her breath well; this brings on an almost dry cough, which recurs until some expectoration is brought up.

75. A constant shooting, which seemed at last to change into a single continuous stitch, close under the right scapula, which seemed to arise from the middle of the right thoracic c, considerably aggravated during inspiration (aft. 36 h.). [Htn.]

Drawing and tearing posteriorly under the axilla down the right side of the spine to the last true rib. [Htn.]

Tearing stitches on the posterior border of the right scapula, followed by a constrictive sensation in the dorsal muscles (aft. 3 h.). [Htn.]

Eroding itching on the back by day.

80. In the left side of the nape and the left side of the back down into the sacrum, a rheumatic stiffness; when not moving at all there was no pain, nor yet when touched, but on the slightest movement and on turning the parts the pain was intolerable.

Betwixt the scapulae, contractive pain. [Htn.]

Violent long-continued stitches in the left clavicle, which commenced from the larynx (aft. 9.1/2 h.). [Htn.]

When moving, as also when holding the head stiffly, frequent, continued stitches on the left side of the neck, from the scapula to close to the occiput (aft. 1.1/2 h.). [Htn.]

Painful aching in the cervical vertebrae on the right and left sides (aft. 4 h.). [Htn.]

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.