Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

This remedy is an antipsoric, a deep-acting remedy. It runs very close to Calcarea, but is milder in its action. It has the same exhaustion from exertion, dyspnoea, sweating and coldness that we find in Calcarea.

What will forcibly call your attention to a remedy will be the curing of a bad and typical case. I remember the first time my attention was decidedly called to Cistus.

I had put it on my list to study from time to time and had come to the conclusion that it was only a side issue, until a young lady of nineteen years of age fell under my observation.

Glands: The glands of the neck were large and hard, the parotids especially; she had foetid otorrhoea; her eyes were inflamed and suppurating; there were fissures at the corners of the eyes; her lips were cracked and bleeding, and she had salt rheum at the ends of the fingers.

I could not make Calcarea fit the patient, but after much study this little remedy seemed to be just what I needed; and although she had had an immense amount of Homoeopathy, good and bad, this remedy cured.

The glands inflame, become swollen and suppurate. It causes cries and cures old ulcers. It has a scrofulous constitution. It is useful in chronic diarrhea, with enlarged glands, even in those who are flabby, sickly and pallid and who cannot go upstairs without losing, their breath.

Mucous membranes: All the mucous membranes throw out a thick, yellowish, offensive mucus and hence it is suitable in old and troublesome catarrh. The chest fills up with mucus and he feels relieved after expectoration, but after he empties the chest it feels raw.

It has eruptions, herpes, tetter, scaly eruptions, salt rheum on the hands and ends of the fingers, with cracking and bleeding of the fingers in winter and from washing in cold water.

All its complaints are worse from mental exertion. He is excitable. His cough, headache and pains are worse from mental exertion. Pains shoot from the head to the ear. Shooting, stitching, tearing pains in inflamed parts. Red discharges from the ear date back to eruptive diseases.

Headache: He feels as if paralyzed after mental exertion, and mental excitement increases his sufferings, like Calcarea and Borax. If he is compelled to fast headache comes on, and like Lyc., the headache will be relieved after eating.

Frontal headache with coldness. In a warm room the perspiration comes out, and it is cold, and the more he sweats the colder he gets. Pain in the forehead with cold sweat, and the colder he gets the worse the pain becomes.

Sick headaches and great prostration with the headache. Sensation of internal coldness of the forehead, especially in warm room. Pressing pain at the root of die nose with headache. The parotid gland is so much enlarged that it pushes the head to one side.

The glands of the abdomen swell with chronic diarrhea, and the swelling may be tuberculous. Enlarged glands, with or without eruptions.

Skin: All over the body there is a sensation of crawling; formication tingling and creeping like ants, and no eruption. He scratches till the skin is raw trying to get relieved of the itching and prickling. Eruption upon the face; eczema. Eruptions about the ear.

Cold feeling or burning in the nose, This is difficult to distinguish. In acute coryza the nose fills up with thick, yellow mucus, and when this is blown out it leaves the nasal cavity empty, and there is irritation; one will say it is a rawness, another will say a coldness, and another will describe it as a burning.

Nose: There is relief when the nose fills up again with mucus. In Ars. the mucus in the nose is so acrid that it burns, but in Ant. c., Aesculus, and in this remedy when the nose is empty there is a burning or rawness. The sensation of rawness, coldness or burning is caused by the inhalation of air.

An epidemic of coryza was prevalent, and this was the strongest symptom, the pain caused by inhaling air, great burning from inhaled air. But it is not in the acute coryza that we see the value of this remedy, it is in the old, chronic case, with thick discharge, and a cold feeling or burning in the nose when inhaling air.

"Sharp shooting, intolerable itching and thick crusts, with burning on right zygoma."

Face: This remedy has cured lupus on the face. Caries of the lower jaw. Open, bleeding cancer on the lower lip. Lupus exedens. Pain in all the joints of the face. It cures old, deep-seated, eating ulcers about the ankle and shin, with copious acrid discharge, formication and swollen glands, aggravation from bathing, extreme sensitiveness to the open air, only comfortable when very warm.

The teeth have all sorts of disturbances; the gums settle away, the teeth become loose; scorbutic gums. The same cold feeling is described in the throat as in the nose-smarting and coldness. Mouth and throat full of mucus. The throat feels rough, as if full of sand. Dry spots in the throat. The throat looks glossy, shining as if vanished, in old atrophic catarrhs.

Every cold settles in the throat. Hot air feels good everywhere. In old cases there is trouble with scrofulous glands, which are enlarged, and the patient wants the heat; goes to the register and turns the heat on, wants to feel the heat in the nose, throat and lungs.

Patients going into tuberculosis have that desire for beat; chilly persons, They do not feel cold to touch, but they are cold subjectively, chilly. Hawking of gum-like mucus, especially in the morning, fauces inflamed and dry. Suppuration of the glands of the throat.

These patients crave pungent things, and especially want something to warm them up, something to build them up, something stimulating herring, cheese; something strong.

"Chronic induration and inflammation of the mammae.

Left mamma inflamed, suppurating, with a feeling of fullness in the chest.

Sensibility to cold air,"

with inflamed glands. We see its tendency to produce enlargement of the glands, and this would make us think of it in growths with involvement of the glands all around. The glands of the neck are enlarged in lines, like knotted rope, as in Hodgkin's disease.

Only a limited number of remedies have this knotting. Itching of the skin and mucous membrane. The itching in the ear is not relieved by scratching, and the part is raw from the constant rubbing and scratching. The eyes constantly itch. In the throat there is continuous itching. In the chest there is a constant tickling, causing cough. At the anus and all other orifices there is itching, and the itching parts are rubbed until raw and bleeding.

Scrofula; swelling and suppuration of the glands of the neck. Eruption on the back like shingles. Scrofulous ulcer on the back. Burning, bruised pain in the coccyx, worse from touch.

That is like Carbo an., in which the coccyx burns when pressed on, especially after a slight injury in a nervous woman.

Tetter on the hands; blisters oozing after scratching. Diseases of the nails. Hard, thickened places on the hands of workmen, with deep cracks.

The febrile symptoms have not been sufficiently brought out. In chronic cases there is copious sweat with exhaustion. Night-sweats.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Helianthemum canadense. Rock-rose. Ice-plant. Frost-weed. N. O. Cistaceae. Tincture of whole plant.

Clinical.─Bone affections. Cancer. Diarrhoea. Erysipelas. Follicular pharyngitis. Glandular swellings. Hip-joint disease. Hospital gangrene. Lupus. Panaritium. Parotitis. Scorbutus. Scrofula. Sore-throat. Ulcers. Zona.

Characteristics.─Cistus is a very ancient remedy for scrofulous affections, and also in scorbutic states and gangrenous ulcerations. The provings and homoeopathic uses confirm its suitability in these respects and bring out clearer indications. It is most suited to scrofulous subjects who are very sensitive to cold air. "Sensitive to cold air" runs through the pathogenesis and also feelings of coldness, of which its peculiar property of favouring the formation of ice about its roots in early winter is strangely suggestive. Cold feelings: in larynx; in abdomen. "Inhaling the slightest cold air causes sore-throat, which he has not when inhaling in a warm room." Inhaled air feels cool. Cold breath. Stitches and cold feelings are very prominent; there is also a soft or spongy feeling which is very characteristic. (I cured with Cistus a case of sore-throat that had lasted for years under allopathic treatment with local swabbings. There was an accumulation of thick yellow, leathery phlegm that had to be cleared away by local means. The patient complained of a "spongy" feeling in the throat, and that led me to the remedy.) Trembling (with the fever). Sensation as if ants were running through the whole body (in evening, with anxious, difficult breathing). There is also great sensitiveness to touch: < from touch. Throat symptoms > by swallowing. < By motion. < Evening; night; morning. < By drinking coffee (diarrhoea). > By expectoration.

Relations.─Antidoted by: Rhus t., Camph., and Sepia. Compatible: Magnesium (the plant grows on a magnesium soil), Bell., Carb. v., Phos. Incompatible: Coffee. Compare: Arg. n., Lach., Carb. v. (cold breath); Sul. (morning diarrhoea).

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Bad effects from vexation.─All mental excitement <; (stitches in throat; cough).

2. Head.─Headache in sinciput after being kept waiting for dinner; > eating; < towards evening and lasts all night; in r. side, with piercing pain in eye.─Forehead cold, and sensation of coolness inside forehead, in a very warm room.─Pressive pain at root of nose with headache.─Head drawn to one side by swellings in neck.

3. Eyes.─Stitches in eyes; scrofulous inflammation; feeling as if something were passing around in the eye, with stitches.─Weight above eyes.

4. Ears.─Discharge of water and bad-smelling pus.─Inner swelling of ears with discharge.─Tetters on and around the ear, extending into meatus.─Swelling of parotid glands.

5. Nose.─Cold feeling, or burning in nose.─Chronic catarrh; frequent and violent sneezing evening and morning.─Inflammation, swelling and burning l. side of nose.─Tip of nose painful.─Eczema.

6. Face.─Feeling as if facial muscles would be drawn to one side.─Flushes of heat in face.─Heat and burning in bones of face.─Half-way up cheek, swelling beginning at ear.─Vesicular erysipelas.─Lupus.─Sharp shooting, intolerable itching, and thick crusts; with burning on r. zygoma.─Caries of lower jaw; with suppurating glands on neck.─Open, bleeding cancer on lower lip.

8. Mouth.─Scorbutic, swollen gums, separating from teeth; easily bleeding, putrid, disgusting.─Dry tongue and palate.─Tongue sore, surface as if raw.─Impure breath.─Sensation of coldness of tongue, larynx and trachea.─Saliva cool; breath feels cool.

9. Throat.─Coolness in throat.─Soft or spongy feeling in throat.─As if sand in throat.─Continuous feeling of dryness and heat < after sleeping, eating and drinking.─Small dry spot in gullet; < after sleeping, must get up and drink; > after eating; throat looks glassy; on back of throat stripes of tough or leathery mucus.─Must swallow saliva to relieve unbearable dryness, esp. during night.─Periodical itching in throat.─Dry, without feeling dry.─Burning high up behind uvula.─Stitches cause cough; when mentally agitated.─Cough causes tearing pain in throat.─Sore throat < from inhaling least cold air.─Hawking of mucus, tough, gum-like, thick, tasteless; mostly mornings.─Expectoration of (bitter) mucus, relieving throat.─Scrofulous swelling and suppuration of glands of throat.

11. Stomach.─Desire for acid food and fruits, but pain and diarrhoea follow eating them.─Desire for cheese.─Eating and drinking > dry throat and pain in sinciput.─After eating: pain in stomach; cold feeling in stomach.─After drinking coffee, diarrhoea.─Empty and cool eructations.─Frequent nausea; with diarrhoea.

12, 13. Abdomen, Rectum, and Stool.─Stitches in l. hypochondrium.─Cool feeling in whole abdomen.─Pain in groin coming from back.─Thin, greyish-yellow, hot stools, squirting out; irresistible urging, < from midnight until noon.─Diarrhoea: from coffee; fruits; with goitre; chronic; in wet weather; in scrawny scrofulous children.─Chronic dysentery.

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Itching in scrotum.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Induration of mammae; sensitive to cold air; cancer.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Larynx and trachea: inhaled air feels cool; itching in; feeling as if windpipe had not space enough.─Asthmatic in evening after lying down and at night.─Cough: < by mental agitation; from stitches in throat; with painful tearing in throat.─Raw feeling in upper chest extending into throat.─Expectoration of bitter mucus.─After raising phlegm feels very much relieved.

20. Neck and Back.─Glands of neck and throat swollen; suppuration.─Itching on back.─Eruption like zona.─Burning, bruised pain in coccyx preventing sitting, < from contact.

21. Limbs.─In evening, pains in knees, in r. hand, in l. shoulder.─Drawing pains in muscular parts of hands and of lower extremities, with pains in joints, fingers, and knees.─Tearing and drawing pains in all the joints, knees and fingers.

22. Upper Limbs.─Sprained pain in wrists.─Pain in fingers (r. hand) while writing.─Tearing in finger-joints.─Tips of fingers very sensitive to cold.─Tetter on hands.

23. Lower Limbs.─Pains in knee and r. thigh when walking or sitting.─Tearing in knees.─Piercing pain in r. great toe (evening).─Cold feet.

25. Skin.─Itching all over body without eruption.─Vesicular erysipelas of face.─Lupus on face.─Tetter.─Hard swelling round mercurial syphilitic ulcers on lower limbs.

26. Sleep.─Very restless at night.─Sleepless from dryness of throat.─Night sweats.

27. Fever.─Chilliness; followed by heat with trembling, accompanied by a rapid swelling and great redness of glands below ear and in throat.─Heat with thirst, causing to drink frequently.─Night sweats.─Sweats easily.