(Rhuburb.)
(From vol. ii, 3rd edit., 1833.)
(A grain of fresh, good, pulverised rhuburb-root is, for homoeopathic use, to be brought to the thirtieth potency (X) in the same way as is taught in the preface to arsenic, viz, by three hours of triturition with milk-sugar and subsequent dilution and potentization.)
In the thousand years since this root was introduced into medicine – first of all by the arabians – it has been misused, sometimes (and indeed very frequently) for senseless scouring out of the intestinal canal, sometimes for allying certain diarrhoeas, but even for the latter purpose seldom with good results.
Had physicians known that rhuburb, like all other medicines, can only cure easily, certainly and permanently, affections similar in every respect to those it produces on the healthy body, they would not have remained for so many centuries in ignorance about the pure characteristic effects of this valuable plant, nor would they have made so many injurious applications of it.
The following short list of the positive effects of rhuburb will serve as a guide to some useful homoeopathic employment of it; they will show in what particular cases it must be decidedly efficacious; they will show that it causes symptoms which enable us to make a curative homoeopathic employment of it in similar symptoms of many common diseases (especially of children), and hence that we may often give it advantageously in certain cases, without making mistakes.
A very minute globule moistened with the thirtieth dilution (X) suffices for all homoeopathic curative purposes, to be repeated if necessary, The olfaction of a globule the size of mustard seed moistened with this dilution is almost always sufficient.
{HAHNEMANN as aided in this proving by GROSS, HORNBURG, F. RUCKERT, TEUTHORN.]
Symptoms are derived from the following old-school sources:
BAKER, in Murray, Appar. Medic., iv.
BROCKLESBY, in ibid.
FALLOPIUS (no reference).
FORDYCE, in Murray,Appar. Medic., iv.
MENZEL and TILLING, in ibid.
MURRAY, Appar. medic., iv.
PALLAS, Reise, iii.
PAULLI, SIM.(no reference).
PAULLINI, in Murray, l. c.
The frag. De Vir. Gives 52 symptoms: the 1st edit 194; the 2nd 209, this 3rd edit one less, the omitted symptom being merely a slight variation on 113.]
RHEUM
Vertigo. [SIM. PAULLI, (Observation)…..]
When standing, attack of vertigo with inclination to fall on one side. [Trn.]
Cloudiness in the sinciput, drawing about in it. [Gss.]
Head quite stupid, as after intoxication. [Trn.]
5. Throbbing headache.
A hammering rose into the head as if from the abdomen (aft. 6 h.).
Formication in the temporal region. [Hbg.]
A drawing pain deep behind the frontal eminences. [Gss.]
Pulsating squeezing pain sometimes in the left, sometimes in the right temporal bone and over the crown (aft. 15 h.). [Hbg.]
10. Feeling of heaviness in the head and intermittent tearing in it (whilst walking)(aft 1 h.). [Rkt.]
Aching pain over the whole anterior part of the skull. [Hbg.]
Pressive pain in the right side of the head, especially on the crown and in the temples (aft. ½ h.). [Hbg.]
Dull, beating pain in the sinciput, chiefly when standing. [Trn.]
Slight stitches over the temples.[Trn.]
15. First an aching then a tearing pain in the head extending into the occiput.
An obtuse stretching dizzy headache, which spreads all over the brain, but is worst on the crown and in the temples.
Headache as if stupefying, as if wrenched in the head, and great anxiety as if he had done something bad, but more when moving and stooping.
Heavy in the head, with a sultry heat rising up into it.
On stooping, feeling as if the brain moved.
20. Dulness of the head with swollen eyes; afterwards aching pain in the head over one orbit, with dilated pupils (aft. 1 to 4 h.).
On the border of the upper eyelid a small gland which cause aching and burning pain.
Before going to sleep an eroding pain in the left eye, as if dirt, dust, or an insect hat got into it, with flow of tears. [Hbg.]
The eyes weep and water in the open air. [Rkt.]
Throbbing pain in the eyes. [Trn.]
25. Pressure on the eyelids, even when they are shut. [Gss.]
Drawing in the eyelids. [Rkt.]
Pupils contracted, sometimes more sometimes less. [Rkt.]
Contraction of the pupils, accompanied by an internal uneasiness (for sixteen hours).
Eyes as if weak, and when he looks long at anything, an aching in them as if they were fatigued.
30. Itching miliary rash on the forehead and arm (aft. 36 h.).
Inclination to contract and wrinkle the frontal muscles. [Trn.]
Tensive sensation in the skin of the face. [Rkt.]
Roaring in the right ear and sensation in it as if the membrana tympani were relaxed, with dulness of hearing (as if something had fallen before the ear); the roaring and the relaxation of the membrana tympani went off (the hearing was restored) every time he swallowed strongly, but only for an instant, they recurred immediately.
A creptition and gurgling in the ear and lateral cervical muscles, which could be felt externally with the hand.
35. In the left ear a squeezing with some itching, which compels him to bore in with the finger. [Hbg.]
Pressure in the meatus auditorious, as if a finger were pressed into it from without. [Rkt.]
Sometimes a throbbing in the ears, especially when stooping whilst writing. [Rkt.]
Marked warmth round about the nose. [Hbg.]
A drawing, as it were stupefying pain along the root of the nose, which caused a formication in the tip of the nose. [Gss.]
40. Pressure as with a finger at the junction of the head with the nape. [Rkt.]
Drawing, gushing sensation on the right side of the lower jaw up into the right temple.
Digging pain in the (hollow) teeth, which seem to be higher and loose (aft. 12 to 24 h.)
In the left molars a pain accompanied with cold feeling which excited a flow of saliva. [Hbg.]
In the left upper incisors a pan accompanied by cold feeling. [Hbg.]
45. Contraction of the gullet. (From chewing and eating the stalks and leaves.) [PALLAS, Reise, iii, p. 235.]
Bitterness only of the food, even when it is sweet, but not per se in the mouth (aft. 10 h.).
The sensibility of the tongue and the whole taste become lost for one day. (From chewing the stalks.) [PALLAS, l. c.]
Sour taste in the mouth. [Gss.]
Great appetite, but the food though tasting nice soon becomes repugnant. [Gss.]
50. Whilst he loathes certain things (such as fat, insipid food), appetite for a variety if things, but he cannot eat much of them, for they immediately become repugnant. [Gss.]
The food does not taste right, and soon becomes repugnant, though he has tolerable appetite. [Gss.]
Anorexia.
Hunger, but no appetite.
He feels qualmish (squeamish, loathing and inclined to vomit).
55. Coffee is repugnant to him unless it is highly sweetened.
Dryness and dry sensation in the mouth, without desire for drink.
Fulness in the stomach, as if he had eaten too much, sometimes followed by drowsiness (aft. 8 to 12 h.).
Contractive sensation in the stomach, accompanied by nausea (aft. ½ h.).
Pressure in the stomach, as if it were very full of food (aft. ½ h.). [Hbg.]
60. Distension of the abdomen after a meal. [Gss.]
Urging to stool after a meal. [Gss.]
Nausea in the region of the stomach. [Hbg.]
Feeling of inclination to vomit (aft. ½ h.). [Gss.]
Nausea, pain in the abdomen. [MURRAY, (Observation). Appar. Medic., iv, p. 392.]
65. Feeling of nausea in the abdomen (aft. 10 m.). [Gss.]
Aching in the region of the spleen. [Rkt.]
Obtuse shooting in the left side near the scrobiculus cordis.[Gss.]
A stitch in the scrobiculus cordis. [Rkt.]
Violent throbbing and rhythmical, painless clucking in the scrobiculus cordis (aft. 1.1/2 h.). [Hbg.]
70. Tension of the abdomen. [Gss.]
On inspiration a pressure in the bowels as if they were full of fluid. [Gss.]
Rumbling and rattling in the abdomen. [Hbg.]
Across the abdomen obtuse, forcing cutting. [Hbg.]
Single cutting pains in the abdomen, without stool. [Rkt.]
75. Pressure in the umbilical region (immediately) [Gss.]
Pressure in the umbilical region, as if pressing out the bowels. [Gss.]
Cutting ithe umbilical region. [Gss.]
(Eating some plums increases the cutting in the abdomen). [Gss.]
Bellyache, flatulent distension of the abdomen. [BAKER, in Murray, l. c., p. 396.]
80. Flatulence. [Hbg.]
A cutting pain in the abdomen soon (1/2 h.) after dinner; he must bend double when sitting in order to allay it; worst when standing.
Cutting drawing in the left loin under the short ribs, and in front in the left side of the hypogatrium, just above the os pubis, a digging about in the bowels. [Gss.]
(Sharp) cutting in the left loin. [Gss.]
A tension in the left side of the hypogastium, low down just above the os pubis, after a meal (aft. 3 h.).
85. Pressure in the region of the os pubis like a strong pressure with the point of the thumb. [Hbg.]
Twitching in the abdominal muscle (aft. 20 h.). [Hbg.]
Violent cutting in the region of the lumbar vertebrae as if it were in their substance; increased by evacuation of the bowels. [Gss.]
In the abdominal muscles a gushing gurgling sensation, just as if he could hear it.
Pains in the abdomen before and during the stool, which cease after completion of the evacuation.
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.