A STUDY OF LYCOPODIUM CLAVATUM


The Cyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesis records thirtyone provings. Both sexes took part in these provings. The ages of the provers ranged all the way from one to fortyone years. Many of the provers were physicians. Both dilutions and triturations were used. The size of the doses also varied from one drop of the tincture to one hundred twenty drops; from one drop of the 30th to one hundred drops. Of the trituration, from one grain to ninty grains.


Makeup:

Poorly nourished; lethargic; lithic diathesis ; dyspeptic.

Location:

Digestive tract; especially liver; urinary organs; sexual organs; mucous membrane; blood; lungs and skin. It has a special affinity for the above, and in addition affects the brain and nervous system.

Sensations:

Fullness; distension; dryness; colicky; pressing; sharp; sticking.

Modalities:

Aggravated from eating cold foods, but especially from cabbage, beans, bread or any starchy food; before the menses; from four to eight P. M.; lamplight; in a warm close room. Ameliorated from fresh open air; after urinating ; warm drinks; nourishing food.

Leaders or Key Notes:

Red and-like sediment in the urine; flatulence while eating, or soon after; weakness due to malnutrition; dryness.

Preparation:

The drug should be especially prepared in order to become an effective remedy. Boericke says, “The drug is inert until the spores are crushed. Its wonderful medicinal properties are only disclosed by trituration and succussion”.

I never use anything but trituration, below the 30th.

Potency:

Lycopodium is a remedy which links preparation and potency closely together. The breaking up of the spores liberates the active principle of the drug. Again quoting Boericke “Both the lowest and highest potencies are credited with excellent results.” Hughes 27 says: “the highest attenuations are those most used in practice. I nearly always employ the twelfth.” Nash 36 says: “Its highest curative powers are not developed below the twelfth, hence neither the old school nor the homoeopathists who confine themselves exclusively to the low preparations, know much about it”.

I use from the 12th to the 6m, the 30th most frequently,

Proving:

The Cyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesis records thirtyone provings. Both sexes took part in these provings. The ages of the provers ranged all the way from one to fortyone years. Many of the provers were physicians. Both dilutions and triturations were used. The size of the doses also varied from one drop of the tincture to one hundred twenty drops; from one drop of the 30th to one hundred drops. Of the trituration, from one grain to ninty grains. Five hundred drops of the tincture in four doses were taken in one day (twenty-four hours).

General Properties:

Before taking up the special groups I want to consider a few of the general properties of the drug. Hahnemann 22 called it one of the three great antipsorics ; the other two being Sulphur and Calcarea carb. Understanding Hahnemann 22 to mean by the above that these three remedies are most useful in the treatment of patients suffering from the several diathesis, my experience with Lycopodium leads me to most heartily agree with him.

The fact that it is an antipsoric makes it the ally of a large number of remedies. Allen 2 mentions sixteen. As an ally I have given it to prepare the patient for the indicated remedy; when the indicated remedy did not act or acted too slowly; and also to complete the restoration of health which the indicated remedy did not quite accomplish. This means that a thorough knowledge of Lycopodium necessitates a good working knowledge of its allies.

Lycopodium is one of our leading remedies. Malnutrition, either as a cause or effect, or both, is a prominent keynote of Lycopodium. In my study of the different groups of symptoms which make up the various conditions for which our remedy has been used, I have relied less upon textbooks which give the symptoms in a schematic form, than upon the reports of cases as found in these textbooks, and still more frequently in our medical journals. Furthermore, I have given greater weight to the writing (reports) of the busy practitioner than to those of the writers and teachers who have had little or no practical knowledge of the action of the remedy, who are theorists rather than practical men.

Only verified symptoms will be mentioned in this study and they will be given in the order of the rank they occupy in each individual group. I have always taught, that a symptom may hold the highest rank in one group and the lowest in another. This fact I have often seen demonstrated in the different groups of Lycopodium.

Digestive Tract.

There are several divisions of this caption, also sub- divisions.

Stomach:

Taking up the stomach first, let us make four sub- divisions, viz., flatulency, gastritis, gastralgia and dyspepsia. This order is not in accordance with the importance of the conditions, but because of the number of authorities who mentioned them. In fact to one inclined to generalize, the four would probably be reduced to two, viz., gastritis and dyspepsia. But then we would be obliged to divide dyspepsia into acrid, atonic and nervous, according to the cause.

Flatulency:

Although flatulency is but a symptom, yet so peculiar are its elements that eighteen of our authorities have mentioned it and a majority have stressed it. Flatulency is a prominent symptom in various groups of both gastralgia and gastritis.

Provers and patients have characterized the flatulency of Lycopodium in the following terms: “Enormous quantities of gas in stomach: gas forming soon after eating, sometimes when first beginning to eat; gas eructated in large quantities; gas which distends both stomach and abdomen, making the stomach tender and sore to pressure; gas fills my stomach so I can not eat enough to nourish me: gas tastes sour; gas which is worse when I am tired, especially mentally; gas which is worse when I take coarse starchy foods; gas made worse by cold foods; gas which is made better by hot salt water or soda in water; gas pains relieved by belching and by free movement of the bowels.”

One patient stated that he had had several attacks of flatulency with such distension of and distress in the stomach, that he would have died if his physician had not used the stomach pump. Lycopodium 30th. trit. completely cured him.

One thing my experience has taught me about the flatulency of Lycopodium, viz., that those patients who have been in the habit of taking large quantities of bicarbonate of soda or “sour stomach” are the most difficult to cur and that the highest potencies are the best for such cases. Abdomen: Aside from the stomach conditions caused by flatulence there are only two which need mentioning besides those of the liver. They are partial paralysis of the intestines and hernia.

The former condition occurs after operations during which the intestines have been handled roughly or for a long time. On such cases an enormously distended abdomen, with hiccough but no flatus passing, are the symptoms which should be added to the personal history of the patient. For such cases, use the highest potencies and contrary to the usual rule, repeat frequently. Stomach or rectal tubes are great aids in such cases.

For inguinal hernia I have often found it useful when the primary cause was nervous weakness and the exciting cause was abdominal flatulence. Lycopodium tones up the nerves and prevents the flatulence and thus cures the patient of hernia.

Liver:

Here, as under the stomach, we find both functional and pathological changes. The bile may be increased or decreased in amount. The bile duct may be occluded by calculi or other abnormal products or by tumors about it. The liver may be atrophied or hypertrophied. It may be congested or inflammed.

Our authorities mentioned the following: hepatitis, jaundice; cirrhosis of liver; nutmeg liver; gall-stones.

Gall-stones:

The symptoms for gall-stones are: first, the make-up of the patient. I have never cured a patient of gall- stones who did not at the same time suffer from the red sediment in the urine, and many of them from renal colic and calculi. The other symptoms of this group were those usually found in cases of gall-stone colic, viz., the peculiar pain, the nausea, vomiting, yellow skin, if the attacks are of long duration, the itching, etc. The stools in this group are always hard, dry, large and in seven out of ten cases very light in color. Flatulency, the gas gas rumbling about in the distended abdomen and increasing the pain about the sore and tender liver, is always present when the constipation is present. The medium potencies are the best for these cases, i.e., 30th. and 200th.

Hepatitis:

It is the chronic form which usually calls for our remedy. Here again, the make-up of the patient is the leading symptom. The personal history will reveal the fact that the patient has had numerous attacks of hepatic colic, also renal and bladder trouble and the stomach symptoms of Lycopodium. In addition you will find pain and tenderness, also marked heaviness in the hepatic region. The peculiar constipation and hemorrhoids of the remedy will be present, and in a majority of cases there will be ascites, which condition is mentioned by six of our authorities and which I found in a majority of cases. The peculiar liver spots (brown spots) are most often found in this group.

I have very rarely found Lycopodium even palliative in cirrhosis.

George Royal
George Royal M. D, born July 15, 1853, graduated New York Homœopathic Medical College 1882, served as president of the American Institute of Homœopathy, professor of materia medica and therapeutics, and also dean of the College of Homœopathic Medicine of the State University of Iowa.