(The seed of the Ignatia amara.)
(One grain of the pulverised(If the mortar is kept constantly Standing in very hot water, and thus maintained at a moderately high temperature, then this seed (as is the case with nux vomits) may be easily reduced to a fine powder without diminution of ire medicinal power.) seed is first brought.to the million-fold (third) trituration in the way taught in the introduction to arsenic, and of this one grain after being dissolved, is brought by means of 27 diluting phials to the thirtieth potency (X).
The characteristic peculiarities of this very powerful vegetable substance, as far as they are known to me, are pointed out in the foot notes.
On account of the alternating actions, that follow one another very rapidly, which it excites, it is particularly suitable for acute diseases, and for a considerable number of these, as may be seen from the symptoms corresponding in similarity to symptoms of disease frequently met with in daily life. It is therefore very properly regarded as a medicine created for great usefulness (polychrest).
Its action is usually exhausted in a few days; yet there are constitutions and states of the body where it cannot effect any evacuation, and in such cases I have sometimes observed its action last nine days. It is suitable for but few cases of chronic disease, and then only with the intermediate employment of some other suitable medicine of mote persistent action.
In its employment it sometimes happens, which is seldom the case with other medicines, that where the first dose has not done what was intended, because (for some unknown cause) it first acted on the disease with its opposite symptoms and consequently soon caused an aggravation of the disease in its secondary action, like a palliative remedy, then (without any intermediate medicine having been given in alternation) a second dose of the same dilution can be given with the best curative effect, so that the cure is only obtained by the second dose. This is no doubt owing to the directly opposite symptoms (alternating actions) of this remarkable drug, of which I shall speak further on. But such cases do not often occur, for, as a rule, in an acute disease, the first dose effects all that this medicine can do in a homoeopathic way, if it has been accurately selected according to similarity of symptoms.
Where in the case of an over-excitable system, perhaps also given in too large a dose, it produces too great sensitiveness, or an anxious, exalted states of the sensibility, hastiness, &c., coffee is serviceable as a homoeopathic antidote. When it his been unsuitably chosen so that its symptoms do not correspond in sufficient similarity to those of the disease, the sufferings it causes may, according to their character, be relieved by the antidotal power of pulsatilla of chamomilla, and in rarer cases by cocculus, arnica, camphor or vinegar.
Although its positive effects have a great resemblance to those of nux vomits (which indeed might be infected from the botanical relationship of these two plants) yet there is a great difference in their therapeutic. Employment. The emotional disposition of patients for whom ignatia is serviceable. differs widely from that of those for whom nux vomits is of use. Ignatia is not suitable for persons of patients in whom anger, eagerness, of violence is predominant but for those who are subject to rapid alternations of gaiety and disposition to weep, of in whom we notice the other emotional states indicated at the end of the following list of ignatia symptoms, provided always that the other corporeal morbid symptoms resemble those that this drug can produce.
Even in a high potency, ignatia is a main remedy in cases of vexation in subjects who have no tendency to break out violently of to revenge themselves, but who keep their annoyance to themselves; in whom, in a word, the resemblance of the vexatious occurrence is wont to dwell in the mind, and so also especially in morbid states which ate produced by occurrences that cause grief. So also attacks of even chronic epilepsy, which only occur after mortification or some similar vexation (and not from any other cause). may always be prevented by the timely administration of ignatia. Epileptic attacks that come on in young persons after some great fright, before they become very numerous, may also be cured by a few doses of ignatia. But it is very improbable that chronic epileptic fits of other kinds can be cured, or have ever been cured, by this medicine. At all events, the cases recorded in medical writings as having been cured by ignatia are not to be relied on, for other powerful drugs were almost always administered at the same time or as intermediate remedies, or there is no evidence that the cute was permanent.
When a person has, for the first time in his life, in consequence of some external disturbing circumstance, been seized with epilepsy which assumes a serious character by its duration or rapid recurrence, a single small dose of ignatia-tincture may be relied upon for relief and generally for permanent cure (as I have seen). But it is otherwise with chronic epilepsies. In these cases it cannot be of permanent benefit for the same reason that it is of no use in other chronic diseases. For its peculiar opposite primary actions (alternating actions) follow one another in this opposite way when it is given in diseases, so that, if the first dose has removed the morbid state, a second must not be given soon afterwards, for this would cause a recurrence of the morbid state, because its opposite alternating action comes into play, which produces the injurious effects of the secondary action of a palliative.( Thus, also, as above stated, a second dose of ignatia-tincture only acts curatively (in opposition) in those cases in which a first dose of, the same remedy, though ) Hence it is proved that it is only applicable and curative in sudden attacks and in acute diseases.
It is beat to administer the (small) dose in the morning, if there is no occasion for hurry. When given shortly before bed-time it causes too much restlessness at night. For all therapeutic purposes the administration of one small globule moistened by the thirtieth attenuation is sufficient, and still better, the olfaction of a globule the size of a mustard seed imbibed with the same potency, repeated once or twice daily.
[HAHNEMANN was aided in this proving by GROSS and FR. HAHNEMANN. The symptoms referred to HARTLAUB and TRINKS are those Of JORG’s proving-which HAHNEMANN took from their Arzneimittellehre.
The old-school authorities whence symptoms were obtained are:
BERGIUS, Mat. Medorrhinum
CAMILLI, Philos. Transact., vol.. xxi, No. 250.
DURIUS. Misc. Nat. Cur., Dec. iii, Ann. 9, 10, Obs. 126.
GRIMM, J. C., Eph. Nat. Cur., Obs. 72.
VALENTINUS, Hist. Simpl. reform.
In the Frag, de Viribus Ignatia has 176 symptoms, in the 1st edit. of the ‘R. A. M. L, 624, in the 2nd edit. 674, and in this 3rd edit. 794.]
IGNATIA
Heat in the head.
Feeling of hollowness and emptiness in the head.
Weak, fallacious memory (before the 8th and 10th h.).
Thinking and speaking are difficult for, him, towards evening [Hb. Ts.( Proving of the drug by Jorg and twelve associates, taking from 10 to 200 drops of the tincture, and from 1 to 4 grains of the powdered bean.) ]
5. He is unable to concentrate the thoughts for an instant. [Hb. Ts.]
Vertigo. (BERGIUS,( General accounts of the drug. All his symptoms, save 431, are evidently taken from Camelli.) Mat. Medorrhinum, p. 150.]
Slight vertigo which changed into aching pain in the right half of the occiput (all the 1st d.). [Hb.Ts.]
Vertigo with some stitches in the head. [Hb. Ts.]
A kind of vertigo : feeling of swaying hither and thither.
10. Vertigo : he staggered when walking and could only with difficulty keep himself upright. [Hb. Ts.]
Dazedness of the head, in the morning after rising (2nd d.). [Hb. Ts.]
Dulness and confusion of the head. [Hb., Ts.]
Intoxication(From a drachm.) (Taken by a man. The symptoms appeared in an hour.) (aft. 1 h.). [ J. C. GRIMM, Eph. Nat. Cur., Cent. x, Obs. 72.]
homoeopathically selected (for some unknown reason) only acted on the disease with its palliative alternating symptoms, whereby it must have caused an aggravation in the secondary action.
A strong feeling in the head, a kind of intoxication, as from brandy, with burning in the eyes (immediately). [Fr. H-n.]
15. Head is heavy (aft. 4, 6 h.),
He hangs the head forwards. (16, 17, 19, 47, contrasted with 20, 21, 22, are alternating actions of the primary sort, both of almost equal importance.)
He lays the head forwards on the table.
He feels as if the head were too full of blood; and the interior of the nose is very sensitive to the air, as if epistaxis were coming on.
Heaviness of the head as if it were too full of blood (as after stooping too low), with tearing pain in the occiput, which is alleviated by lying on the back,( See note to 599. ) is aggravated by sitting up, but is most relieved by stooping the head low when sitting,
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.