Gelsemium. [Gels]
This remedy is often underestimated in the early stages of cold in the head. It will break up a cold at the beginning quicker than any other remedy with these indication: Fullness of the head, hot fever and chilliness, as if a cold were coming on. The patient is dull and weak, chills run up and down the back, with a watery, excoriating, or bland discharge from the nose and sneezing. There is also a marked inclination in the patient to hug the fire. Colds brought on by warm relaxing weather especially indicate **Gelsemium, hence it seems to be most useful in spring and summer weather, and corresponds well to some epidemic colds. There is a predisposition to take cold on any change of the weather. It has been found specially useful in influenzas with fever. It is a remedy that must be used early in the cold. The Ix dilution will often suffice.
**Lachesis is often suitable for spring colds and catarrhs, with sensitiveness of throat. **Quillaya. In the incipiency of a cold, with very sore throat, this remedy has been found to be of signal use. **Sepia. Colds at onset of menstruation.
Nux vomica. [Nux-v]
The first stage of ordinary cold in the head may be met by **Nux vomica, when it is brought on by damp, cold weather, or from sitting on damp, cold steps; associated with sneezing and stuffed up feeling in the nose. The nose is dry, there is very little discharge, the eyes water, and there is scraping in the throat, and dullness and oppression about the front sinuses; it should be given as soon as dryness and tickling in the nose begins; the nasal passages are alternately free and obstructed. These symptoms are worse in a warm room and better in the open air. It is of little use after the cold is established. **Mercurius is similar, having rawness and soreness in the nose, but it is especially aggravated in damp weather.
**Pulsatilla is more for a ripe cold, and Arsenicum also has heat and burning in the nose, but the coryza is relieved by warmth and aggravated by cold, which is opposite of **Nux. Another symptom indicating **Nux is a fluent coryza during the day and a stuffed up sensation at night.
Mercurius. [Merc]
There is a profuse coryza which extends to the frontal sinuses, burning in eyes and nose, acrid discharge, violent sneezing, and tendency to perspiration which aggravates. When a cold begins with coryza, **Mercurius is a valuable remedy.
**Kali iodatum has great distress in frontal region, worse at 3 A.M.
**Mercurius is especially aggravated in damp weather and the coryza is worse by heat of stove room; nose is sore; wiping nose is painful. Thin watery discharges belong to **Allium cepa, Euphrasia, Arum triphyllum and Arsenicum.
The Mercury discharge is thin mucus, not thick as in **Pulsatilla, Hydrastis, and some other drugs, or it may be yellowish green in color.
Pulsatilla. [Puls]
**Pulsatilla is more indicated in an advanced stage of cold in the head, what is known as ***a ripe-cold, hence it should not be given at the beginning of a cold, for it is never indicated. There is no sneezing or excoriating discharge with **Pulsatilla. The discharge is thick, yellow, muco-purulent, and, above all bland.
**Penthorum sedoides. Coryza with raw nose and throat; later it has the thick, yellow discharge of **Pulsatilla, but the keynote of this remedy is a sensation of wetness in the nose.
**Hydrastis is also similar to Pulsatilla, but there is no burning and rawness and tenacity to the discharge; sensation of a hair in the nostrils; constant desire to blow the nose, which feels raw and excoriated; the cold has settled in the back of the nose and throat. This remedy alone will cure more sinusitis than any remedy because it is more often indicated. Thick, yellow, tenacious mucus in posterior nares, more distinctly yellow than **Kali bichromicum and profuse. If you have a **Pulsatilla cold, and in addition to it you have sneezing, give Cyclamen, also for attacks of sneezing without a cold.
**Chromico-kali-sulphuricum in the 2X or 3X is highly recommended in chronic rhinitis.
With the **pulsatilla cold there is usually loss of smell and taste, and there is relief in the open air, even though the patient be chilly. **Magnesia muriatica. Loss of taste and smell after catarrh. **Drosera suits the last of colds with a cough coming on by fits.
Camphora. [Camph]
First stage of cold in the head when nose is stopped up and is dry, and the inspired air feels cooler than usual. It will often check an incipient cold when the chill is first felt, and is a useful remedy in chronic or rather paroxysmal coryzas, which occur upon every change;of weather; it may be used by olfaction. The patient feels chilly, frontal sinuses involved, dull headache. Increased secretion of watery mucus from nose, with and without sneezing. It really comes in along with or even before **Aconite, but it has not the wide range of application that **Aconite has.
Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Michigan Homeopathic Medical College. Member of American Institute of Homeopathy. In addition to his editoral work he authored or collaborated on: Boericke and Dewey's Twelve Tissue Remedies, Essentials of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics and Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics.