Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

Chelidonium is a remedy more suitable for acute diseases, though it cures certain chronic conditions. It is not a very deep acting remedy. It is about like Bryonia in its general plane, length and depth of action.

It has been used principally in gastric and intestinal catarrhs, in acute and semi-chronic liver troubles, and in right-sided pneumonia.

Skin: The skin is likely to be sallow, and gradually increases to a marked jaundice in connection with these complaints. Semi-chronic gastritis, with jaundice.

"Gastro-duodenal catarrh.

Congestion and soreness in the liver, with jaundice.

Right-sided pneumonia, complicated with liver troubles, or jaundice."

This remedy seems to act throughout the system, but almost always along with it the liver is involved, and it is suitable for what the old people and the doctors called "biliousness." The patient is generally bilious, has nausea and vomiting. Distension of the veins. Yellowish grey color of the skin.

Mind: Very few mental symptoms have been brought out in its proving not enough to give us a good idea of the desires and aversions. We do not get a clear idea of the intellectual faculties. It needs further proving, yet in many regions it has had superabundance of proving.

"Sadness and anxiety."

Brooding over some sort of trouble generally runs through the mental state.

"Anxiety, allowing no rest," keeping the patient uneasy day and night.

Sadness, as if she had committed a crime; as if some dreadful thing was going to happen. So sad that she thinks she must die

"Weeping despondency.

Distaste for mental exertion and conversation.

If you examine those medicines that act primarily upon the liver, that slow down the action of the liver, you will find the word melancholia."

With heart troubles, great excitement, With liver troubles, slowing down of the mental state, inability of the mind to work, sluggishness of the mind, inability to think, inability to meditate, slow pulse. Sluggishness of the whole economy.

Dizziness: The sensorium is very commonly disturbed, and the patient is dizzy.

"Things go round in a circle."

Dizziness comes, and it does not let up until nausea, and sometimes vomiting, follows.

"So much turning in the head that he vomits.

Confusion of mind.

Loss of consciousness and fainting."

These are also common features with liver troubles.

The mind symptoms are present more or less with the following liver symptoms; there are pains of a dull aching character, "soreness." Bruised pains. Tenderness of the liver to touch. Aching pains, that seem to involve the whole right lobe of the liver; creating a sensation of fullness. Pressure upwards, with difficulty of breathing. Pressure downwards, sympathetic with the stomach, with the nausea and vomiting.

Right scapula: And then more intense pain felt under the right scapula.

"Dull aching pains under the right scapula; sharp, shooting pains under the right scapula"; these complicate themselves again with pneumonia, with pleurisy.

It cures pneumonia and pleurisy; it cures various forms of congestion in the liver, when these pains go from before backward, and seem to be felt through the back.

"Stitching in the region of the liver, extending through to back.

Hard pains felt through the back."

Some patients will describe these pains as shooting pains; some as tearing pains, and others as sharp pains, going through the right hypochondrium or through the right lobe of the liver to the back.

"Pains from the region of the liver, shooting towards the back and shoulders.

Spasmodic pain in the region of the liver.

Pressing pain in the region of the liver."

In congestion or inflammation, fullness and enlargement, semi-chronic cases, or even acute, this medicine proves suitable for such conditions. The right hypochondrium is tense and painful to pressure.

This remedy has cured gall stone colic. Practitioners, who know how to direct a remedy, relieve gall stone colic in a few minutes. We have remedies that act on the circular fibres of these little tubes, causing them to relax and allow the stone to pass painlessly.

In a perfect state of health, of course, there are no stones in the bile that is held in the gall bladder, but this little cystic duct opens its mouth and a little gall stone engages in it, and it creates and irritation by scratching along the mucous membrane of that little tube.

When this pain is a shooting, stabbing, tearing, lancinating pain, extending through to the back, Chelidonium will cure it. The instant it relieves the patient says:

"Why, what a relief; the pain has gone."

The remedy has relieved that spasm, the little duct opens up and the stone passes out through the ductus communis choledochus. Every remedy that is indicated by the symptoms will cure gall stone colic.

A patient lying in bed, with great heat, extreme sensitiveness, cannot have the body touched, screaming with pains, red face and hot head, will gall stone colic, will be relieved in three minutes by Bell., but that is not at all like this remedy. Natrum sulph. and many other remedies have cured gall stone colic in a few minutes, when the symptoms agreed.

Now as to the pneumonia, it is generally of the right side, or right sided spreading to the left. The right-sidedness is marked, and but small portions of the left lung are involved. The pleura is generally involved, and so there are stitching, tearing pains.

One may not practice long before be will find a Chelidonium patient, sitting up in bed with high fever, bending forward upon his elbows, holding himself perfectly still, for this medicine has as much aggravation from motion as Bry. All of the pains are extremely aggravated from motion.

This patient is sitting with a pain that transfixes him; he cannot stir, he cannot move without - the pain shooting through him like a knife.

The next day you will see that his skin is growing yellow. If you see him in the beginning Chelidonium will relieve him and you will prevent that pneumonia. It is not uncommon in children, and it is extremely common in adults.

Do not get confused with Bryonia. Both are violently worse from motion. Bryonia wants to lie on the painful side, or wants to lie on the back if the pneumonia is mostly in the posterior part of the right lung. In Chelidonium he is worse from touch and motion.

Bell. has that extremely painful, tearing, rending, of the right lung with pleurisy, but in Bell., one cannot touch that right side, cannot press it, but must lie on the other side and he cannot move.

Cannot stand a jar of the bed, because of the extreme sensitiveness to motion: I mention all three in this particular way because they have some things in common, but the remedies are different.

Chelidonium has cough with chest symptoms of the right side, liver affections, and the mental affections that commonly belong to these, violent aggravation from motion. The pains are ameliorated by heat. Pain that extends to the stomach, ameliorated by heat.

Mental symptoms: ameliorated by eating. Craves hot milk; hot fluids. Eating warm food ameliorates the liver, the chest and stomach symptoms.

"Bilious vomiting. Retching; bilious eructations.

Nausea and retching during an attack of anxiety."

Stomach: These are all commonly present during the complaints described. The pains, when they become severe, seem to strike the stomach and cause vomiting. Ameliorated by something hot.

"A feeling of anguish in the pit of the stomach.

Persistent pain in the stomach; aggravated by motion and ameliorated by eructations.

Constriction and sensitiveness in the pit of the stomach."

These are all aggravated by touch and ameliorated by eating.

"Constant aching pain in the stomach, ameliorated by food.

Constrictive, pinching pain in the stomach better from drawing up the limbs and lying on the left side, ameliorated by eating."

Eye: It has many eye symptoms. Stitching pains.

"Opacity of the cornea."

Inflammations.

Bruised pain in the eyes.

Right supraorbital neuralgia."

In many instances it prefers the right side.

In the face the jaundice is the most marked thing that is expressed and, then, we have the dirty gray complexion.

"Pale, dirty-yellow-face."

Head: The headaches are brought on from heat, unlike the stomach and the liver, and the lungs, etc.

The head is aggravated from motion, aggravated from beat, aggravated from a warm room, aggravated from warm applications. There is where it differs from the internal or general state. There are numerous headaches.

Periodical bilious sick headaches, with vomiting of bile, brought on from exposure to beat, from being overheated, aggravated from motion, wants to lie perfectly quiet in a dark room, and better from vomiting bile.

Old-fashioned bilious sick headaches.

Bilious diarrhoea. Along with jaundice, clay-like, pale, faecal, puttylike stool. Bileless stool. Stool too light colored. Stool quite white in children. Diarrhea and constipation alternate. Stool brown, white, watery, green mucus, thin, pasty, bright yellow, or gray tinged with Yellow.

Voice and respiration: Hoarseness.

"While coughing, pain in the larynx, and pressure in the larynx."

The difficult breathing comes on with liver symptoms and pneumonia and chest troubles in general.

"Difficult respiration, with short fits of coughing.

Short, quick breathing.

Anxiety as if he must choke.

Difficult breathing; tightness over the chest as if breathing would be hindered."

It has also nightly attacks of humid asthma. This is brought on from every change of the weather.

All its complaints are brought on from changes in the weather. He cannot stand weather changes, either too cold or too warm. Rheumatic complaints in the shoulders, hips and limbs, from changes in the weather.

With complaints of the liver, lungs and chest, there are coughs. They are spasmodic. The chronic cough is violent, spasmodic, dry, coming in paroxysms.

"Spasmodic cough, without expectoration."

After it has existed a while there wilt be some expectoration.

"Repeated attacks of short cough: Short cough, with little grayish phlegm.

Rattling; fatiguing cough."

Limbs: In the limbs there are rheumatic and neuralgic pains. Neuralgia of the limbs in general, most violent. Limbs feel heavy and stiff. Limbs flabby. Later the patients runs down somewhat, weak heart, weak circulation; dropsical conditions of the limbs. Great restlessness.

"Trembling and twitching of the limbs.

Weariness.

Indolence.

Indisposition to work."

The neuralgias are more common in the head and face than in the lower parts of the body, in the limbs and in the extremities.

It has sharp, febrile attacks, such as found in pneumonia with chill and in inflammation of the liver. It has cured intermittent fever, coming in the afternoon and evening.

Itching of the skin. jaundice. It has cured old putrid ulcers.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Chelidonium majus. Greater Celandine. N. O. Papaveraceae. Tincture of entire fresh plant, at time of flowering.

Clinical.─Antrum of Highmore, inflammation of. Cancer. Chest, affections of. Chorea. Constipation. Cough. Diarrhoea. Dyspepsia. Gall-stones. Gonorrhoea. Haemoptysis. Haemorrhoids. Headache. Influenza. Jaundice. Lachrymal fistula. Laryngismus. Liver, affections of. Nephritis. Neuralgia. Nose-bleed. Pleurodynia. Pneumonia. Rheumatism. Scald-head. Stiff-neck. Taste, altered. Tumours. Warts. Whooping-cough. Yawning.

Characteristics.─Chelidonium is a poppy and therefore allied to Opium and Sanguinaria, with both of which it has many features in common. But its closest analogue is Lycopodium, with which it holds a complementary relation. I have often cured with Chel. when Lyc. was apparently indicated and failed to act well. The juice of Chel. causes vesication when applied to the skin. An extract injected locally in cancer cases has gained a reputation in the old school. The juice is yellow, resembling bile. Probably on the "signature" of the bile-like juice it was recommended as a remedy in jaundice by Galen and Dioscorides. Given on the broad ground of organ-homoeopathy, in material or semi-material doses, it has achieved notable results in cases of liver disease. But it has also fine indications. The chief "keynote" for its employment is a continued, bruised, aching pain at the inferior angle of the right scapula: Chel. acts on spleen and kidneys as well as liver. It is also a venous medicine. Paralytic symptoms are prominent. There is great debility and drowsiness after eating and on waking. Prefers hot things. Desire to lie down after a meal. Aversion to move, feels tired on least exertion. There is the Opium sleepiness and yawning. Yellowness of the skin; ulceration. Chel. is a predominantly right-side medicine (like Sang. and Lyc.), and besides the right infra-scapular pain and the action on the liver it has neuralgia over the right eye and in right malar bone, and also an action on the caecum and right ovary; and on the base of the right lung. In pneumonia with bilious symptoms it is one of the chief remedies. Chel., like Lyc., has fan-like movement of alae nasi in chest affections. There may be either constipation (clay-coloured stools), or diarrhoea with bright yellow stools. There is nausea (of pregnancy) with desire for food > by drinking milk. Desire for hot drinks, only water almost boiling will stay on stomach. Chills or creeps accompany the headache or the jaundice. The dirty yellow complexion produced by Chel., with other signs of cachexia, strongly suggest cancer, and the action of Sang., its relative, in cancer of the breast is well known. Also Opium, in addition to its narcotic influence, is believed by Snow to have a retarding effect on cancerous growth. A somewhat typical Chel. case, simulating cancer, is recorded by C. M. Foss. A man, 45, had catarrh of the nose, and, at the same time, of the stomach: had been told he had cancer of the stomach. Tenderness over stomach with sinking, gone feeling, at times reaching a state of painful anguish; sickness at stomach, all symptoms > by eating. Chel. 6x cured at once. "Aversion to cheese" is an indication for Chel. in many gastric conditions. Teste, who proved Chel., places it at the head of a group which includes Caps. and Viola. od. He mentions the analogy between the juice of Chel. and the juice of Garcinia morella, Gamboge. Both are bright yellow and pass to orange and brown on drying. Some old-school authorities have recommended the juice of Chel. as a substitute for gamboge as a hydragogue cathartic. Among its ancient external uses was, as an application in eye affections, to chronic ulcers, and to warts. In Teste's proving he emphasised the following symptoms: "1.30 p.m.: dull and heavy, deep-seated pain in whole right side of chest and right shoulder, without cough, but with embarrassed respirations. This pain, which is at times accompanied by dull beatings in the chest, does not allow him to draw a long breath; it is not perceptibly aggravated by the motions of the arm. The pain is particularly felt in the axilla and under the shoulder-blade; a sort of numbness of the muscles in the region of the liver, and in the whole right side of the neck, face, and head; apprehension of threatening pneumonia; great anxiety; constant desire to stir and change one's position (lasts an hour and decreases gradually)."-"Extremely profuse emission of a whitish and foaming urine."-"2 p.m.: drowsiness which is so marked, even in the open air, that she is near falling asleep while walking; lasts half an hour." According to Rademacher Chel. acts on the centre of the liver. Chel. has a strong action on the respiratory sphere. A characteristic cough is caused by a sensation of "dust" in the air passages. St. Clair Smith relates a case. A young lady had had for several weeks a dry, racking, fatiguing cough night and day, < night, no expectoration and no pain. She looked completely worn out. The cough was excited by a sensation as if throat and larynx were full of dust. Chel. 3, a powder every two hours, was given. She only took three when the "dust" left the throat and with it the cough, and never returned. Carleton Smith cured this: "Dry cough through day with pain and stitches right side; severe hoarseness 5 p.m., voice scarcely audible." In rheumatic affections Chel. has a large field. Oedema, heat, tenderness and stiffness are the leading indications. Here is a case: A baby girl had had rheumatism of both ankles for a week, when it settled in the right one, which became greatly swollen, very tender, painful and hot. Constipated for two months previous, whitish stools. Chel. improved in twelve hours, and entirely cured in a week. In another case of acute rheumatism of feet and ankles, supervening on a slow, remittent fever, Chel. cured after the failure of Rhus and Bry. The patient was a girl of six. Both ankles were affected, feet much swollen and extended. The slightest movement or touch extorted screams. The only relief was constant bathing with hot water. W. A. Burr cured a case of right sciatic rheumatism, of ten years' history, in a very corpulent woman, aet. 55. In her case there were aggravations coming on in the afternoon and evening of each day, and lasting into the middle of the night. During the paroxysms the outer ankle and lower leg became cyanotic, swelling around ankle, constriction above, great sensitiveness to touch and motion. Very nervous during the spells. Great external sensitiveness; aversion to touch, and < from it. Pressure > some symptoms and < others. Eating > stomach symptoms: all complaints lessen after dinner. Change of weather <; warmth <; cold water >. Open air < headache; pain in right eye; and causes chill; and drowsiness. Motion < most symptoms. Coughing and blowing nose > headache. Rest >. Lying on face > pain in kidneys and bladder. Lying on left side > pain in stomach. Many symptoms are < 4 a.m.; also 4 p.m. and afternoon.

Relations.─Antidoted by: Acon.; acids; wine and coffee; Camph. (Teste). It is antidote to: Bry. Compatible: Ars., Bry., Coral. r. (whooping-cough); Led., Sul. (hepatised lung); Ipec. (spasm of glottis). Compare: In pain below angle of scapula, Juglans cin., Chenop. (lower than angle and nearer spine), Ran. b. (edge of left; through to chest), Lob. cerul. (inside edge right scapula), Angust. (cutting from just beneath right scapula to breast, near nipple), Bry.; Bry. is a close analogue in many symptoms─yellow tongue, swelling of liver; Lyc. is complemented by Chel. (some differences are: Lyc. has sour taste, Chel. bitter, Lyc. has rumbling in left hypochondrium, and fulness after a small quantity of food. Lyc. and Bell. have symptoms beginning and ending suddenly; Chel. has headache ceasing suddenly). Merc. (bilious pneumonia. Sharp pains through right lung to back; Merc. has slimy stool and great uneasiness before and after, the stool of Chel. being free); Kali c. (pneumonia in later stages, copious exudation into lungs, rattling with cough, < 2-3 a.m.); Colch. (nausea with desire for food); Carb. an. (leucorrhoea staining yellow); Act. r. (waving sensation in brain); Aco., Ars., Bell., Bry., Calc., Caps., Chi., Gamb., Graph., Ign., Nit. ac., Nux, Pho., Pod., Puls., Rhus, Sep., Spi., Sul., Viol. o.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Remarkable tranquillity of mind for two or three days, followed after a while by ill-humour.─Low-spirited, desponding, with inclination to weep.─Forgetful, absent-minded.─Restlessness and uneasiness of conscience; felt she had committed the unpardonable sin.

2. Head.─Confusion.─Whirling vertigo; with shivering; with nausea; with vomiting of bile; on awaking; from 6 to 9 p.m.─Rush of blood to head and face, throat and upper chest.─Heaviness of head, extending to r. side of head, whence a rheumatic drawing extending into r. side of neck, wrist, and chest.─Headache in afternoon, disappearing suddenly.─Headache > closing eyes; > after eating (severe on rising, > after breakfast).─Headache, throbbing in temples; pressing from within outwards esp. towards forehead, < open air; coughing; blowing nose; stooping; > while eating.─Waving sensation in brain.─Waving in brain and heaviness in forehead and vertex, extending to temples, and very unpleasant after drinking white beer.─Pressure in forehead extending to orbits, which are painful as if sore on moving the eyes.─Pressing pain. r, side of forehead.─Band sensation across forehead and temples, > closing eyes.─Tearing in forehead above eyes, extending into the (l.) eye, into the lids, and root of nose.─Pressive pain in r. temple, r. parietal bone, and at last over r. eye.─Beating in temples synchronous with pulse on lying down in bed at night.─Stitches in vertex, esp. when walking fast.─Occiput heavy as if it could not be raised from pillow at night; with drawings in neck from above downward.─Sensation of coldness in occiput ascending from nape; < moving; > at rest.─Soreness; sensitiveness; itching; tingling; crawling on scalp.─Hair falls out, esp. on occiput.─Scald-head.

3. Eyes.─Painful pressure on upper eyelid.─Tearing pain in and above eyes.─Neuralgic pain above r.─eye.─Stitches between eyebrows.─Pressive, burning headache between eyebrows which presses lids together; > after eating, but returning after three-quarters of an hour.─Margins of eyelids red.─Clonic spasms of lids.─Redness of conjunctiva.─Whites dirty yellow.─Aching in eyeballs on moving them.─Pupils contracted.─Vision dim.─Mistiness of sight of r. eye, morning on waking.─A blinding spot seems to be before the eyes, and if he looks at it the eye waters.

4. Ears.─Pain behind r. ear.─Tearing from r. cheek-bone to ears and around ears extending to upper part of occiput along lamboidal suture.─Sensation in both ears as if wind were rushing out.─Loss of hearing during cough.─Roaring as of a distant wind-storm.

5. Nose.─Tip swollen and red.─Dry coryza with (one-sided) stoppage.─Fluent coryza.─Discharge of black blood with mucus on waking in morning.─Obstruction with liver complaints.─Hallucinations of smell (on stooping).

6. Face.─Red without heat.─Remarkably yellow, esp. forehead, nose, and cheeks.─The usual red has a mixture of dark yellow.─Tension and drawing in (l.) malar bone.─Sensation of swelling in r. cheek-bones.─Burrowing-tearing in antrum.─Itching in face and on forehead.─Herpes on face, esp. chin.─Lips swollen; dry, cracked, crusty, feeling.

7. Teeth.─Tearing pains r. ear to r. teeth, afternoons.─Toothache with facial neuralgia; < warmth; and in bed at night; > cold water; l. lower molar, jerking, tearing in antrum.─Gums bleed.

8. Mouth.─Taste: mucous, pappy; bitter; food tasting natural.─Bitter taste when not eating.─Tongue: nervous, pointed; thickly coated, yellow with red margin; teeth─indented.─Mouth dry.─Salivation: bitter; oozing of blood.─Bad odour.─Mucus flies from mouth when coughing.

9. Throat.─Sensation as if larynx were pressed on oesophagus impeding deglutition.─Sensation of choking in throat, as if too large a morsel had been swallowed.─Fauces red; swelling of uvula and tonsils; shooting in tonsils; burning and scraping in throat.

10. Appetite.─Appetite lost.─Thirst with dry mouth and throat.─Desire for milk, which agrees; for sour things.─Aversion to cheese; to meat.─Prefers hot drinks, which >.─All complaints > after dinner.

11. Stomach.─Hiccough.─Frequent belchings.─Eructations tasting like juniper berries.─Nausea with sensation of heat in stomach.─Bilious vomiting.─Gnawing in stomach relieved by eating.─Sensation of coldness in stomach.─Cutting pain in stomach when yawning; soon after eating.

12. Abdomen.─Colic, navel drawn in.─Stitches in liver and spleen.─Shooting stitching through liver to back; crampy pain inner angle of scapula.─R. (and l.) hypochondrium and scrobiculus cordis tense and painful on pressure.─Pains across umbilicus as if abdomen constricted by a string.─Abdominal plethora; distension, rumbling.

13. Stool and Anus.─Mucous diarrhoea at night.─Stools white; bright yellow; like clay.─Constipation, stool hard, in hard lumps.─Some blood with stool.─Periodic straining and pressing on rectum, as if before a stool without result.─Burning; cutting; drawing; crawling and itching; sticking and itching in rectum and anus (haemorrhoids).

14. Urinary Organs.─Pressure in bladder with scanty emission.─Spasmodic pain in r. kidney and liver.─Burning, darting and cutting in urethra.─Frequent desire and urging to micturate.─Urine: profuse, whitish, foaming; red and turbid; dark.─(Diabetes.)

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Drawing pains in spermatic cord; in testicles.─Eczematous excoriation on male parts and anus.─Painful swelling r. testicle with tension and drawing in spermatic cord.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Menses too late; too profuse; lasting too long.─Pain in r. ovary.─Milk diminished.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Hoarseness.─Spasm of glottis.─While coughing pain in larynx and sacrum.─Pricking; sticking; tickling; constriction in larynx.─Pressure as if air could not pass through; as if swollen (r.).─Pressure, heat or irritation in trachea.─Short breath and tight chest.─Nightly attacks of asthma with sense of constriction in region of diaphragm.─Cough in paroxysms; throws up lumps of mucus.─Cough after waking and on rising, with sensation of dust under sternum.─Paroxysms of cough with copious expectoration; with pain behind sternum, esp. at night.─Paroxysms of dry cough 4 p.m.

18. Chest.─Stitches beneath r. ribs; l. side of chest.─Deep-seated pain in whole r. side of chest.─Soreness of lower ribs r. side.

19. Heart.─Stitches and lancinating pains in cardiac region and heart; in pectoral muscles.─Periodic palpitation.─Violent palpitation with tightness of chest.

20. Neck and Back.─Drawing in nape and occiput.─Stiff-neck, head drawn to left.─Stitches beneath r. scapula (hindering motion of arm).─Fixed pain under inner and lower angle of r. scapula.─Violent pains at lower angle of l. scapula.─When bending forwards or backwards, tearing, pressing pain in back as if vertebrae were being broken asunder.─Drawing from, sacrum to r. side of scrobiculus.

21. Limbs.─Twitching in arms and legs.─Neuralgia in limbs.─Rheumatism.─Least touch anywhere is exceedingly painful; sweat without relief.─Limbs feel heavy, stiff, and lame; flabby; trembling.

22. Upper Limbs.─Pain in r. shoulder; in l. shoulder.─Inability to use r. (also l.) arm and forearm with freedom, sometimes attended with tearing pain.─Stiffness in wrist.─Stiffness, stitches in wrists.─Tips of fingers cold.

23. Lower Limbs.─Shooting in r. hip.─Drawing pains in hips, thighs, legs, and feet, more r. side.─Weight in lower limbs.─Swelling of feet, most round ankle.─Toes feel dead.─Intolerable pains in heels, as if they had been pinched by too narrow a shoe.

25. Skin.─Yellow, yellowish-grey shrivelled skin.─Itching.─Burning like nettles, preceding eruption like measles.─Red painful pimples and pustules on various parts.─Red miliary eruption on neck, chest, and arms.─Eczema.─Old, putrid, spreading ulcers.

26. Sleep.─Frequent yawning.─Lethargic.─Sleepy, wants to lie down but cannot sleep.─Sleep dreamful, unrefreshing.─Dreams of corpses and funerals.

27. Fever.─Yawning and shivering before attacks.─Icy coldness of r foot.─Violent shivering fit, 3 p.m. daily.─Rigor followed by heat and sorrowful, anxious mood.─Heat of head, dark red cheeks, pulsation in arteries; full pulse; faintness; difficulty of speech; nausea; short breath; cold feet.─Burning heat of hands, spreading thence over body.─Moist, burning skin.─Sweat during the night, esp. towards morning.─Sweat on least exertion.

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

Celandine (Papaveraceae)

Persons of light complexion, blondes; thin, spare, irritable; subject to hepatic, gastric and abdominal complaints (Pod.); every age, sex and temperament. Constant pain under the lower and inner angle of right scapula (Kali c., Mer. - under the left, Chenop. g., Sang.). Ailments: brought on or renewed by change of weather (Mer.); all lessen after dinner. Tongue coated thickly yellow, with red edges, showing imprint of teeth (Pod. - large, flabby, with imprint of teeth, Mer.). Desire for very hot drinks, unless almost boiling stomach will not retain them (Ars., Casc.). Periodic orbital neuralgia (right side), with excessive lachrymation; tears fairly gush out (Rhus). Constipation: stool, hard, round balls like sheep's dung (Op., Plumb.); alternate constipation and diarrhoea. Diarrhoea: at night; slimy, ligh-gray; bright-yellowish; brown or white, watery, pasty; involuntary. Face, forehead, nose, cheeks, remarkably yellow. Yellow-gray color of the skin; wilted skin; of the palms of hands (Sep.). Hepatic diseases; jaundice, pain in right shoulder. Pneumonia of right lung, liver complications (Mer.). Spasmodic cough; small lumps of mucus fly from mouth when coughing (Bad., Kali c.). Affects right side most; right eye, right lung, right hypochondrium and abdomen, right hip and leg; right foot cold as ice, left natural (Lyc.). Old, putrid, spreading ulcers, with a history of liver disease, or of a tubercular diathesis. Gall-stones, with pain under the right shoulder-blade (terrible attacks of gall-stone colic, Card. m.).

Relations. - Chel. antidotes the abuse of Bry., especially in hepatic complaints. Compare: Acon., Bry., Lyc., Mer., Nux, Sang., Sep., Sulph. Ars., Lyc., Sulph. follow well, and will often be required to complete the cure.

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Fixed pain (dull or sharp) under the lower inner angle of the right shoulder blade.

Yellow eyes, face, skin, hands, stool clay colored or yellow as gold; urine yellow. Tongue thickly coated yellow, with red edges.

Right-sided remedy; supra-orbital; hypochondriac; lungs; hip; foot cold as ice, etc.

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The center of action of this remarkable remedy is in the liver, and its most characteristic symptom is a fixed pain (dull or sharp) under the lower inner angle of the right shoulder blade. This very characteristic symptom may be found in connection with general jaundice, cough, diarrhoea, pneumonia, menses, loss of milk, exhaustion, etc., in fact, no matter what the name of the disease this symptom present should always bring to mind Chelidonium and close scouting will generally reveal hepatic troubles or complications as would be naturally expected with such a remedy. Chelidonium is like Lycopodium, by preference, a right-sided remedy, right supra-orbital neuralgia, right hypochondrium and scorbiculum cordis tense and painful to pressure; right-sided pneumonia and shoulder painful; shooting pain in right hip extending into abdomen; drawing pain in hips, thighs, legs, or feet, more right-sided; right foot cold as ice, left natural. Further study will show that Chelidonium not only is a right-sided remedy, but in many other points stands close to Lycopodium, and in my experience one is often found indicated after the other. Although this characteristic infra-scapular pain is as reliable as any in the Materia Medica, there may be cases in which it does not appear at all, which can only be cured by Chelidonium, especially liver and lung trouble. If we should find pressive pain in the region of the liver, whether it be enlarged and sensitive to pressure or not, bitter taste in the mouth, tongue coated thickly yellow, with red margins showing imprint of the teeth, yellowness of whites of eyes, face, hands and skin; stools gray, clay colored, or yellow as gold, urine also yellow as gold, lemon colored or dark brown, leaving a yellow color on vessel when emptied out, loss of appetite, disgust and nausea, or vomiting of bilious matter, and especially if patient could retain nothing but hot drinks on the stomach, we would have a clear case for Chelidonium even though the infra-scapular pain were absent. All these symptoms might be found in either a chronic or acute case. If in a chronic case, some anti-psoric like Lycopodium might have to be called in, according to indications, of course, to help complete a cure, but Chelidonium would be the chief reliance.

These liver troubles range from simple congestion and inflammation of the organ, to the more severe and deep-seated affections like fatty liver, gall stones, etc. Chelidonium is one of the leading remedies in pneumonia, which is complicated with liver symptoms. Sometimes in coughs which are persistent with much pain through right side of chest and into shoulder, Chelidonium helps us out and saves the patient from what might easily terminate in consumption.