Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

Caladium is a wonderful remedy; perhaps some of you have read It endeavoring to understand it; it is a difficult medicine to understand, because it is quite evident from the provings that the prover did not understand how to describe and report symptoms; did not know how to tell his sensations because they were so strange; he could not relate his mental state.

Mind: An individual puts his mind to bear upon something which seems to have taken place during the day, but he is not quite sure whether it took place or not; he thinks the matter over, and yet he cannot be really sure whether it took place or not, until he actually goes and puts his hands upon the object thought about; proves to himself by actual contact and observation that his vague impression was so, that it was true, then he goes away and again he is undecided as to whether it was so or not.

This relates to things that actually happened.

"Very forgetful, he cannot remember," etc.

This led to the use of Caladium for a good many different kinds of mental affections, loss of memory where there is that vague state of mind.

It might be bordering upon imbecility, it might be the borderland of insanity. All day long he finds himself looking into the things that should have been done; they have simply escaped his mind; he has forgotten them. So the mind is worn through in places.

A state of absent-mindedness. It may come on in an acute state, with unconsciousness. There is a good deal of congestion of the brain, more or less excitement, but more important is prostration of the mind, weakness of the mind; feeble-minded; inability to perform intellectual work, it is impossible.

He cannot think; the more thought he puts upon a thing the more fatigue he has and the further away that thing seems to be; the more he attempts it the less concentrated is the mind upon a subject. It is not strange, then, that the provers themselves were unable to put these ideas into speech so as to give us an intelligent idea of proving. It is only by reading between the lines, using the remedy and studying it that we can straighten out this tangled skein.

"Very thoughtful, absentminded."

There is in acute states delirium, excitement of mind, unconsciousness, stupefaction. As the febrile state is continued, we have this mental state. This remedy is useful in fevers that are continued.

One of the most important things to decide when we are going into the mental state of a remedy is whether we shall use this remedy in hysteria, in the delirium of the various phases of fever, or in insanity, and to ascertain this we turn to that part of the proving which gives us the pace of the remedy.

If we want to understand the delirium of Belladonna and Bryonia to see which one would be suitable in a certain case, we turn to the febrile action of the remedy and see what the nature of that is; the pace tells us largely what kind of delirium, if we do not know from the delirium itself.

So we will see that in Belladonna there is no continued fever, and as a remedy must, in its very nature, be adapted to the very nature of the disease, it would be useless to follow the many injunctions that are written in our books telling us to give Belladonna in the acute form of delirium: in typhoid fever; but Bryonia has just that condition; hence we will see that Bryonia is useful in such cases which present symptoms similar to it, because the pace of the disease is similar to the pace of Bryonia, which has continued fever.

Belladonna has intermittent and remittent fever, particularly remittent, and hence the acute delirium of Belladonna is similar to the acute delirium of remittent fever. Now to bring this point to bear; this remedy's fever is a continued fever it has not great amount of fever in it, but it is a continued fever we shall see that there is coma and stupor from fever;

"delirium, unintelligible murmuring; " mental prostration.

This remedy is suitable in low, murmuring, exhaustive cases of typhoid fever, cases that are running a very sluggish course; not a very active delirium; but muttering; a low form of semi consciousness, very often coma or stupefaction like Phos. ac., a dazed mind.

Forgetfulness in persons who are mentally and physically prostrated from sexual excesses or from tobacco poisoning. It is indicated in old debauches who are unable to perform the marital act. He has the most tantalizing craving for the opposite sex with no ability to perform coitus. Lascivious ideas.

Such men stand on the street corner and feast upon the forms of passing girls, and their semen dribbles away; a state also found in Picric acid and Selenium.

You can only cure these patients if they desire to reform, and if you can inspire them to live a better life. Without this you cannot save them, and those who take delight in such things are not worth saving, and medicine will not take hold of them. To cure, the patient must use his will to help the remedy.

Extremely nervous; afraid of his own shadow; awake all night with lascivious thoughts, apprehensions, especially before going to sleep; afraid of the future. Fear of catching diseases when they are not around.

This alternates with an opposite condition. At times he is wholly incapable of appreciating danger. He will go into any sort of danger without thought. Foolish boldness. We may sum up the mental symptoms by saying he is extremely excitable.

Vertigo: Vertigo on closing the eyes. He cannot stand or walk with the eyes shut, but it is not otherwise sufficiently related to locomotor ataxia to be of use in that disease.

Rocking, dizzy sensation after lying down and closing the eyes, as it in a rocking chair. Vertigo and nausea in the morning with stitch in pit of stomach. He opens his eyes and asks:

"Where am I? What do you want around me?"

The text is long with many vague symptoms. The mental symptoms are the most important.

Mind: The whole nervous system is in a state of excitement. He is full of fear; startled by the slamming of a door, or the rattling of a newspaper. Cannot sleep if there is the least noise. Things are done in great haste. Nervous excitement.

The patient in general is aggravated by warmth and the warm room, and ameliorated by cool open air. Yet he wants warm drinks in the stomach. Longs for beer without a decided thirst. Eats without hunger and drinks without thirst. Nervous fantastic things run through the remedy showing its relation to neurasthenic and hysterical patients. Eructations.

Skin: There is a sensitiveness of the skin. Crawling; creeping. He has the spider-web sensation. Sensation of a fly crawling on the face. The perspiration is sweetish, and if he is in a room with others, while perspiring, the flies will all light on him.

Sweetish odor to the perspiration. which attracts the flies.

Tobacco heart. The nervous symptoms of tobacco are similar to those of Caladium, and Caladium is useful in all sorts of nervous conditions, the effect of tobacco and cigarette smoking. It has a number of time turned the patient entirely away from his cigar, and removes the overwhelming craving that prevents smokers breaking off their habit.

Headaches and mental states in smokers.

Itching is violent, especially about the genitals. It is useful in extremely nervous women who suffer from pruritus vulvae, keeping them awake at night, attended with abnormal excitement.

Stools soft, yellow, pasty, mushy, as in typhoid. Stitches as from knives in the rectum. There are many urinary symptoms. Urine offensive, putrid, scanty.

Pulsating in the stomach after walking; empty feeling, fluttering in the stomach.

Genitals: Violent sexual desire with relaxed penis. Impotency. Erections when half asleep in the morning, ceasing when fully awake.

When the desire is most marked he has no ability. Automatic erections without desire, strong and painful. During an embrace no emission. It has urethral discharge and is useful in gonorrhea.

In vigorous persons after the gonorrhoeal discharge has been improperly suppressed, sometimes impotency is the result of the suppression. Caladium has cured as frequently as Thuja. Itching eruption on the scrotum.

The most striking symptom of the female sexual organs is the pruritus; she is compelled to scratch, and the torment reduces her in body and mind.

Sleep: There are some strange sleep symptoms. Kept awake by crawling. Sleeplessness from pruritus, especially in the genitals.

Groans and moans anxiously in sleep so that he wakens the neighbors. Restless sleep; anxious, vivid dreams which he remembers better than the things of the day. Falls asleep and continues to dream of the same subject where he left off.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Caladium seguinum. Arum seguinum. Dumb Cane. (South America.) N. O. Araceae. Tincture of whole fresh plant.

Clinical.─Asthma. Dropsical swellings. Gleet. Impotence. Irritation. Nymphomania. Pruritus vaginae. Spermatorrhoea. Typhoid. Typhus. Worms.

Characteristics.─Like the other Arums, Caladium has an intensely irritating effect on the mucous membranes and skin, and produces many burning sensations. Calad. is one of the best remedies for that troublesome affection, pruritus vulvae. Sometimes this is set up by intestinal worms finding their way into the vagina, and they may then cause masturbation, and even nymphomania. There is also great disturbance in the male sexual sphere. Masturbation and its results. Nocturnal emissions occurring either without dreams or with non-sexual dreams. Spermatorrhoea. The glans penis is flabby from masturbation, prepuce if drawn back remains so from loss of contractility. Catarrhal asthma, mucus not readily raised, but giving relief when it comes up.

H. N. Martin gives this picture of Calad.: "Is similar to Lycopod.; patient wants to lie down always; > from sweat (opp. Merc.); > after short sleep (opp. Lach.). Perspiration attracts flies. Genitals relaxed and perspire. Patient afraid to go to sleep, and doesn't know why. Itching of vulva with burning."

It is suited to persons of lax, phlegmatic temperament. There is < from warmth; aversion to cold water; but bathing with cold water > itching. Heat with drowsiness. Sweet odour of sweat. All symptoms > after sweat; after sleeping in the daytime. Motion < most symptoms. Great desire to lie down and aversion to motion; but if he makes the effort he is strong enough. Attacks like fainting after writing and thinking, when lying down or when rising.

Relations.─Compare: The Araceae (but it is incompatible with them); Aco., Bry., Caust., Carb. v., Canth., Caps., Cina (worms); Gels. (effects of sexual excesses); Hyo., Ign., Lyc., Merc., Nit. ac., Nux, Pho., Plat. (nymphomania and irritation of genitals); Pul., Sep., Staph. (effects of masturbation); Sul., Zingib. Antidoted by: Caps.; Ign. (stitches in pit of stomach and fever); Carb. v. (rash); Hyo. (night cough); Zingib. (asthma); Merc. (preputial symptoms). Antidote to: Merc. Compatible: Aco., Canth., Puls., Sep. Complementary: Nit. ac.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Low spirits and gloomy thoughts (impotence).─Forgetfulness.─Very irritable and depressed.─Confused, cannot concentrate the mind.─Apprehensive; careful about his health.

2. Head.─Dull, frontal headache.─Vertigo with nausea, mornings.─Fulness in head, as if too much blood were there.─Throbbing pain in the head.─Headache with nausea.─Dull, pressive, or sharp, cutting pain in temples.─Numbness in side of head.

3. Eyes.─Burning and stitches.─Eyes violently inflamed.─Drowsiness and heaviness.─Eyelids red and inflamed, with smarting and burning.─Dull, pressive aching in portion of eyeballs.─Eyeballs sore and sensitive to pressure.

4. Ears.─Very sensitive to noise (start from sleep).

5. Nose.─Fluent or stopped coryza.

6. Face.─Sensation as if a spider web or plaster were sticking here and there.

7. Teeth.─Toothache, teeth feel elongated.

8. Mouth.─Swelling of tongue with excessive ptyalism; saliva resembling white of egg; mucous membrane red.

9. Throat.─Dryness and burning in fauces and pharynx (without thirst); with aversion to cold water.

11. Stomach.─Nausea, esp. in the morning on rising.─Acid eructations.─Frequent eructations of very little wind, as if stomach were full of dry food (with asthma).─Burning in stomach, not > by drinking.

12. Abdomen.─Spasmodic cutting pain in stomach and abdomen.─Abdomen swollen and tender to touch.─Sensation as if a long worm writhing in region of transverse colon or duodenum.

13. Stool and Anus.─After stool thin red blood passes.─Discharge of mucus from the rectum after stool.─Stitches in rectum after stool.─Soft, pasty, clay-coloured stools, passed with difficulty.─Stool containing hard lumps.─Very scanty, pasty stool.─Urging to stool on rising in the morning.─Burning in the anus after stool.

14. Urinary Organs.─Bladder feels full without desire to urinate.─Urine fetid; with sediment (with impotence and gleet).

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Organs swollen (puffy), relaxed, and sweating.─Swelling of margin of prepuce with smarting during micturition.─After waking prepuce remains retracted; painful and swollen.─After coition the prepuce remains behind the glans; it is painful and swollen.─Glans red, dry; dotted with still redder points.─Glans flabby from masturbation.─Painful erections without sexual desire, alternating with sexual desire with relaxed penis.─Impotence with mental depression.─Frequent nocturnal emissions.─Nocturnal emissions either without dreams or with non-sexual dreams.─Imperfect erections and premature ejaculation of the semen.─Impotence; the penis remains relaxed, even when excited.─Feeling of coldness, and cold perspiration of the sexual organs.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Itching of external genitals with voluptuousness.─Pruritus of vulva and vagina.─Pruritus vaginae; with onanism (nymphomania).─Worms escape into vagina and cause masturbation.─Cramp-like pains in uterus after midnight.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Larynx and trachea seem constricted; impedes deep breathing.─Sudden and involuntary cough caused by tickling high up in throat (above larynx).─Oppression of breathing, cannot get his breath easily.─Asthma alternating with itching, burning rash.─Catarrhal asthma (with mucus which is not readily raised, but the asthma is relieved when it is raised).

18. Chest.─Sharp stitches in r. side of chest.

20. Back.─Rheumatic pain in back; can hardly turn in bed.─Pain in shoulder with headache.

21. Limbs.─Limbs feel tired and weak.─Rheumatic pains in the limbs.─Trembling of the limbs.─Stitches in corns.─Cramps in the soles of the feet at night.

24. Generalities.─Attacks like fainting after writing and thinking, when lying down, or when rising.─Disinclination to move, and desire to lie still.─Weariness over the whole body.─Extremely nervous.─Great throbbing all through the body.─Sighing respiration; dryness of parts which are usually moist.

25. Skin.─The skin has a rough, dry feeling.─Itching, burning rash (forearm and chest), alternating with asthma.─Violent itching on various parts.

26. Sleep.─Drowsy and sleepy.─Sleepless, or unrefreshing sleep.─Sleepiness in the daytime, but cannot go to sleep on account of vertigo.─Groans and moans anxiously in sleep.─Dreams; frightful.

27. Fever.─Chilliness in the evening, without thirst.─Chilly even in a warm room.─Feverish, skin hot and dry.─Face, head, and hands hot; legs and feet cold.─Internal heat, going off from sleep.─Heat with thirst, pain in the ears, swelling of the sub-maxillary glands, and retention of stool.─Sweat towards evening, with prostration, yawning, and drowsiness.─The perspiration (after the heat) attracts the flies.

Keynotes and Characteristics with Comparisons of Some of the Leading Remedies of the Materia Medica (Allen's Keynotes), Henry Clay Allen

American Arum (Araceae)

Very sensitive ot noise; slightest noise startles from sleep (Asar., Nux, Taren.). Eructations, frequent, of very little wind, as if stomach were full of dry food. Impotence: with mental depression; relaxed penis, with sexual desire and excitement (Lyc., Sel.). No erection, even after caress; no emission, no orgasm during an embrace (Cal., Sel.). Prutius vaginae; induces onanism (Orig., Zinc.); during pregnancy; with mucous discharge. Falls asleep during evening fever and wakes when it stops. Sweet sweat attracts the flies. Mosquito and insect bites burn and itch intensively. Aversion to motion; dreads to move (Bry.). Destroys craving for tabacco.