The Copperhead, being native to North America, especially to the Eastern half of the United States, should have special value to the ills of the people who reside in the same area. No doubt, if its characteristic symptoms were better known, it would be more commonly used with advantage. Lachesis having been so well- proven and widely known is doubtless often prescribed when Cenchris is really the similimum.
Years ago, under the direct supervision of Dr. Kent, a proving of Cenchris was made and the symptoms are to be found in Kent Lesser Writings. This proving is a good beginning, but there is much which can only be confirmed and accentuated by clinical use. So far as I know or can discover Cenchris has been used very rarely.
I shall try to give you a synopsis of its characteristic symptoms and signs and hopes that you may find more occasions to use it. This synopsis is from Pulfords Graphic Drug Pictures, as follows:
Is dreamily absent with marked alteration of moods; has, like Kali carb., swelling below the eyebrows, but apparently not the puffing on coughing or the 3 a.m. aggravation of Kali carb.; is restless; must lie with the head drawn back or one will choke and suffocate; the upper lip is swollen; the discharges are offensive; tight clothing around the waist is unbearable; often, while riding in a carriage, one has the sense of a bottle of water shaking up and down in the left hypochondrium; sighs frequently; palpitation; the nates are cold at night in bed; has a sense of a cord around the hips; lascivious dreams, especially of seeing rape and sexual intercourse; the whole body seems enlarged to bursting, especially about the heart; the heart is weak; the feet cold; she has a feeling of throbbing in the arms and vulva on waking after a dull aching in the sacrum which is better walking about, and a yellow leucorrhea with pain in the right ovary.
The more detailed symptoms as brought out in Kents proving are as follows: He has anxiety with feeling that he will die suddenly and is restless and walks the floor. Time passes too slowly. he is suspicious and angry and wants to be alone. he is dreamy and absent minded; indecisive; selfish; easily slighted; envious and alters his mood and desires.
He is dizzy and has fainting spells.
He thirsts for cold water and craves salt bacon.
He has pain and aching at attachments to diaphragm. Belt around his waist is unbearable and clothing makes it even worse, as does deep breathing or laughing.
Face besotted, mottled, purple, deep red. Bloated above and below the eyes.
Nose and throat a if taken a severe cold. Coryza, worse on left. Burning as of pepper. Nose obstructed. Mucus yellow and blood-tinged. Hawks thick, tough, stringy mucus difficult to raise. Loss breath and strangles raising it. Throat sore and full; must swallow often to breathe. Full of blood-tinged mucus on waking in A.M. (K.BI., Lach.). Pain on empty swallowing (Lach- empty and liquids). No pain on swallowing food and liquid. Scraped throat better from warm drinks. Dilated vessels, uvula. fauces and pharynx.
Teeth and gums ache from hot or cold drinks.
Taste that of copper.
Constriction about neck with choking feeling-worse with clothing. Suffocates on lying down in evening. Dyspnoea as if dying from anxiety. Stops breathing on going to sleep. Frequent sighing. Must lie with head drawn back. At 3 p.m. dry mouth, intense thirst, choking, and sensation as if chest filling up causing constriction and difficult breathing.
Dry barking cough after 3 p.m. through evening. Cough from exertion and after retiring at night. Hopeless, helpless feeling with cough. Expectorates dark bloody mucus. Bright blood from throat.
Anxiety about heart after lying down as if about to die. Palpitation. As if heart were distended to fill chest. Fluttering of heart at 3 p.m. followed by feeling of heart falling into abdomen. Sudden sharp stitches. Drawing pain right chest. Better with head drawn back. Better lying on right. Worse lying on left.
Cramping in stomach better from belching. Ice relieves nausea.
No stool, but strains until rectum feels prolapsed. Diarrhea with tenesmus. Involuntary stool with flatus. Stools frothy, foamy, yeasty, black sediment.
Loses urine with cough. Frequent desire after retiring with little amount. Large amount when doing mental work.
Soreness of gluteal region. Throbbing in buttocks, vulva and anus followed by ache in sacrum, better by walking.
Pain in right ovary. Shooting pain in left ovary on motion. Menses profuse, bright red with clots. Severe cramps. Yellow or white leucorrhea.
American Homeopathy Doctor.
Rabe graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College and trained under Timothy Field Allen and William Tod Helmuth.
Rabe was President of the International Hahnemannian Association, editor in chief of the Homeopathic Recorder, and he wrote Medical Therapeutics for daily reference. Rabe was Dean and Professor of Homeopathic Therapeutics at the New York Homeopathic Medical College.