Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

Sensitiveness: This drug is characterized by a general sensitivity. Sensitiveness of vision, of hearing, of smell, of touch; sensitiveness to pain. it is most astonishing sometimes about this great sensitiveness. Pains are increased by noise.

Sensitiveness of hearing is so great that sounds are painful. Pains in the face, toothache, headache; pains in the lower limbs; everywhere aggravated by noise.

All the nervous disturbances possible are found in this medicine, and they are all aggravated by noise. Even the opening of the door and the ringing of the door-bell produces great suffering. Such patients are so sensitive that they hear sounds which those in a state of health cannot hear.

Perhaps no medicine in the Materia Medica approximates this sensitiveness of hearing where it is accompanied with pain, unless it be Nux vom. Those practitioners who do not know this generally resort to Nux vom. for pains aggravated from voices in another room, or from noise or the sound of children.

Many remedies have increase of nervousness from noise; noise aggravates headache, and aggravates suffering about the head, and makes some persons nervous, But pain in the extremities aggravated by noise is peculiar. It seems that the noise disturbs him so that he cannot bear pain.

The Coffea state is brought on by emotions or violent excitement of the mind, but especially by joy or

"pleasant surprise."

The result is sleeplessness, nervous excitement, neuralgia, twitching of muscles, toothache, face ache, red face and hot head.

You may be called to the bedside of a woman who has been laboring for some great cause. She works persistently, is successful, but goes to bed with weeping, delirium, neuralgia, sleeplessness.

Her heart palpitates, her pulse flickers, she has fainting spells, and without Coffea she may die. Coffee drinkers who keep up through some ordeal and then break down are similarly affected.

The Coffea patient is sensitive to wine. A small amount of wine intensifies the nervousness, produces sleeplessness, flushed face, feverishness, great excitement. Not necessarily intoxication, but nervous excitement.

Coffea has a painful sensitiveness of the skin beyond comprehension. I remember one particular case. A woman bad her lower limb out of bed and it was as red as fire down one side. I walked toward it to put my hand on it.

But she said,

"Oh, don't touch it, I can't bear to have it touched; I can't touch it myself."

I asked how long this had been coming on.

She said,

"Ob, it all came on within an hour."

Such a symptom is common in coffee drinkers. There was no fever. Intense stinging, burning pains in the skin with the redness and heat with coarse rash coming on suddenly, leaving just as suddenly. The sensitive part is aggravated by cold air, aggravated by any wind or from fanning, from motion, yet aggravated by warmth. Aggravated from anyone walking across the floor. The woman I referred to scowled when I was walking toward the bed. A number of times I have seen such things relieved within a few minutes by Coffea.

Mind: Fainting from sudden emotions. Hysteria, nervousness, weeping. Pitiful weeping from pain trembling and weeping from hurt feelings; the slightest neglect. The greatest mental and physical exhaustion; great restlessness lying awake most of the night.

The wakefulness produced by Coffea is well known, even to the laity. It is taken by nurses to keep them awake nights with their patients. The Coffea patient is quick to act and to think. So full of ideas that she lies awake nights making plans, thinking of a thousand things; utterly unable to banish the thoughts that flood the mind; hears the clocks on the distant steeples, as do Opium, China and Nux vom.

Hears the dogs barking. So great is the brain activity, the mental excitement, that she hears noises that are purely imaginary. Memory active, easy comprehension full of ideas; increased power to think and to debate. Coffea increases the mental capacity. But after a while reaction follows; she becomes stupid and sleepy.

There is no end to the fancies, to the visions. Fanciful visions come before the mind. Recalls things not thought of for years; recalls poetry that was recited in childhood. Eyes brilliant; pupils dilated; face flushed head hot.

Teeth: With all these nervous states the patient dreads the fresh air. He is extremely sensitive to cold, sensitive to the wind and cold weather. Complaints come on in the cold weather, from the cold air. Pain in the mouth and jaws, better from holding ice-cold water in the mouth.

This applies to toothache and faceache where it is deep in the jaws. Hot head; inflamed condition of the gums. Pain in the teeth; rending, tearing pain in the teeth, brought on from exposure to cold, from emotions, from excitement, from joy; aggravated from motion; ameliorated by ice or ice-cold things; aggravated by warm food.

Cannot drink warm tea, it so intensifies the pain. That is a particular. The particulars contrast with the generals. In one place you may see "better from cold" in black-faced type, but it relates to the face and jaws. Worse from cold is a general. Aversion to cold air, aversion to the open air unless it is very warm and still. Aversion to wind.

"Neuralgic toothache entirely relieved by holding cold water in the mouth, returning as it becomes warm.

Toothache during the menstrual period.

Complaints of anemic children during dentition."

Children: Those nervous, excitable children that talk to the nurse and the mother very rapidly with brilliant eyes, red face, cannot go to sleep. It will quiet the patient and actually favor the growth of the tooth in a painless manner.

That is the description of a nervous child with many nervous brain and mental troubles. This child is extremely sensitive; it takes cold. The routine prescriber gives Belladonna to a child who has hot head, hot face and throbbing carotids, and when it does not help he gives more Belladonna, and increases the size of his dose until the child has a proving.

He makes a Belladonna child, out of it when Coffea would have cured it. In most instances where Belladonna is indicated the child is sluggish and stupid, and would like to sleep. With Coffea there is excitement. The child hears things its mother cannot hear; sees things; imagines things.

Wakes up in fright. Sees this, that and the other thing in the room. Wakes up excited as if it had visions. Looks for things, and finally sees they are not there. Such things are strong features of Coffea.

Ears: At times the head is hot, the face is flushed and, the eyes so brilliant that one fears apoplexy. Patients will often tell you that they hear a "noise" in the head, a ringing and roaring in the occiput.

The ear is the one organ capable of registering sounds. But strange to say, the ears are sometimes very deceiving. Roaring in the ears sometimes seems as if it were in the occiput. Sometimes it is accompanied with a sensation of tingling or bubbling in the head.

When patients say,

"I have a roaring in the head,"

you know that means in the car; many times accompanying roaring, ringing in the ears, buzzing in the ears, is a peculiar sensation of vibration in the head that is mistaken by the patient for a sound.

I mention that because the Coffea patient feels a crackling or a bubbling in the occiput. The head feels badly; it feels too small. Headache, as of something pressing hard upon the surface of the brain.

You would naturally suppose there was a pressing because of the congestive state heretofore described.

"Headache as if the whole brain were torn and bruised, or dashed to pieces.

Worse from motion, noise or light."

The eye and the head symptoms are worse from noise and light.

"Headache intolerable.

Head feels small, and as if filled with fluid.

Nervous hysterical headache.

One-sided headache."

There is another head symptom which is quite common. A feeling as if a nail were driven into the head. Coffea headaches are worse from walking, from motion; from the mere moving across the floor, he says he feels a draft of air on his head. And that is true of the pain in any part of the body.

If a Coffea patient should have a pain in the hand, swinging of the hand through the air will aggravate. It is worse both from the motion and from the air. I want to illustrate that in this way in order to show how sensitive he is to air, and especially the painful part to cold air; when he moves against the air, against even still air he feels it. But the amelioration of the toothache from cold is an exception, is a particular.

The neuralgia of the face is a common feature of old coffee drinkers.

Sensitive persons take coffee and finally become habituated to it. They say they cannot get along without it. They must have coffee. Such individuals should stop coffee. When coffee furnishes a crutch it is a sure indication that drinking it must be stopped.

So it is with tea or any beverage. Such persons sometimes become sensitive to coffee, and they drink it in great quantities; the face becomes red; headaches come on, and other symptoms of Coffea. Stopping coffee brings out quite a proving, and you have to study Cham. and Nux for an antidote.

In all these remedies you get opposite effects. Now Opium will illustrate that. The first effect of Opium is to constipate. Let several doses be given, and as the effects of the Opium wear off he may have diarrhea. Opium eaters can seldom stop because a diarrhea comes on. If you should ever have an Opium case and diarrhea comes on Puls. will nearly always control it. But there are individuals who reverse that. Often small doses of Opium will bring on dysentery, and if it is increased, bloody dysentery and inflammation of the bowels come on. Of course, one is action and the other the reaction.

Women: A woman who is a confirmed coffee drinker will have menses too soon and lasting too long.

Uterine hemorrhage is not uncommon. Another feature of Coffea is that the woman can scarcely wear the napkin during menstruation (Platinum).

The parts are in a state of hyperesthesia. The vagina is hot and sensitive, often preventing coition. In the text it reads

"Great sensitiveness of female genital organs, with general excitability.

She is in a state of ecstacy.

Uterine hemorrhage with excessive sensitiveness of organs and voluptuous itching.

Metrorrhagia; large black lumps."

Sometimes large bright red lumps.

"Worse from every motion, with violent pain in the groins, and fear of death."

Excessive sensitiveness about the vulva with voluptuous itching, is a strong feature of Coffea, and you will often find such symptoms in coffee drinkers.

During and after labor we also see this great excitement, all these nervous manifestations. The nervous system is in a fret, and such a mental state as described comes on with after-pains; extremely sensitive to pain, cries out; sees visions; hears all sorts of noises.

Pains aggravated from motion; aggravated from noise. Wants everybody to keep still in the house.

Convulsions of children.

"Puerperal convulsions.

Extreme excitability."

"Palpitation of the heart, pulse fluttering."

"Strong, quick palpitation of the heart with extreme nervousness, sleeplessness and cerebral erethism caused by unexpected news of great good fortune."

Let a woman about to go into confinement hear suddenly some unusually good news and the becomes almost ecstatic; carries the symptom all through confinement. The child is affected, the milk is affected. The milk flows away.

Hemorrhage is likely to come on. Great nervousness, excitability, fear.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Coffee. N. O. Rubiaciae. Tincture of raw berries.

Clinical.─Apoplexy. Asthma. Aural neuralgia. Colic. Convulsions. Diarrhoea. Ecstasy. Excitement. Headache. Heart, hyperaesthesia of. Hernia. Hyperaesthesia. Hysteria. Intermittents. Joy, ill-effects of. Labour pains. Metrorrhagia. Neuralgia. Over-sensitiveness. Sciatica. Shock. Sleeplessness. Toothache.

Characteristics.─The effects of Coffea cruda have to be considered separately from those of Coffea tosta, since the roasting converts much of the Coffeine into Coffeone or Methylamine, which gives to coffee its aroma. But the effects are scarcely distinguishable, and I have not attempted to keep them strictly apart. The provings of Coff. c. were made with the raw berries. Coffea belongs to the same family as China, Ipecacuanha, and like these remedies has many symptoms of intermittent fever. It has been noticed that coffee-drinkers who do get ague are more difficult to cure than those who do not drink coffee. The great characteristic of Coffea is exaltation of the senses and sensibility in general. Sight is improved, fine print can be read easily; hearing is more acute, and noises are intolerable. The sense of smell is heightened. All kinds of pains are intolerable; and are accompanied with fear of death. The mental activities are exalted. Sudden emotions, especially joy, produce dangerous symptoms. Great sensitiveness to touch or contact. These symptoms will recall Acon. Guernsey places it in the front rank of remedies for irritability. He compares four others with it, all of which have irritability in high degree, but have different concomitants: Acon., "fearful and anxious; dreads things"; Aur., "suicidal, will thrash around in bed (as females in confinement) as if wishing to injure or kill themselves"; Cham., "spiteful, uncivil"; Coff., "wakeful, on the constant move"; Nux v., "sullen, keeps the eyes shut; doesn't wish to speak or have anything to do with any one." Staph. and Coloc. deserve mention also. Teste groups Coff. with Causticum. He remarks that dynamised Coff. crud. prevents or neutralises, in many persons, the effects of roasted coffee. This quasi-isopathic action, as Teste truly remarks, is by no means confined to Coffea; dynamisations of many other drugs being antidotal to secondary effects of the crude substances. Hahnemann describes the migraine of coffee-drinkers thus: "It comes in the morning after waking, increasing little by little. The pain becomes intolerable, and sometimes burning, integument of head very sensitive and painful on slightest touch. Body and mind excessively sensitive. Patients look exhausted, retire to dark places, close their eyes to avoid light of day; remain seated in an armchair or stretched on a bed. The least noise or motion excites the pain. They avoid talking, being talked to, or hearing others talk. The body is colder than usual though no chills are experienced; the hands and feet are especially cold. They loathe everything, especially food and drink, on account of a continual sickness at the stomach. If the attack is very violent a vomiting of mucus takes place, which, however, does not relieve the headache. There are no alvine discharges. This kind of megrim scarcely ever leaves before evening. If the paroxysm is less violent, a little strong coffee which was the first cause of such a headache will produce a temporary palliation of the pain, but the disposition to relapse becomes so much greater. The attacks come irregularly, every fortnight, or every few weeks, without any apparent cause, and quite suddenly, so much so that the patient often does not feel a single unpleasant symptom the evening preceding the attack. Such a headache has never been seen by me except in real coffee-drinkers." It is well to inquire carefully into the dietary of patients who come complaining of headaches of this kind. More recently Dr. Gilles de la Tourette (Lancet, July 20, 1895) has described the effects of coffee. In his opinion they are very frequently mistaken for the effects of alcohol: "morning vomiting of glairy mucus, pain in the pit of the stomach, thickly-coated tongue, loss of appetite. The disgust excited by even the idea of solid food is such that these patients eat nothing else but bread soaked in their poison-coffee. There supervene then nausea, vomiting, and painful acid eructations." The pulse is slowed. Insomnia is common, and if there is sleep it is disturbed by dreams of a terrifying nature, like those met with in alcoholism. The effects of coffee are less deep than those of alcohol, and quickly disappear when the habit is discontinued. Peculiar symptoms are: as if head too small; as if something hard pressing on surface of brain; as if head would burst and fly to pieces if she moved; as if intestines were being cut; as if body would burst; "tight" pain; sensation of warmth. Coffea is suited to tall, lean, stooping persons, with dark complexions. Sanguine choleric temperament, complaints during infancy and dentition. Diarrhoea in housewives who have much care and trouble in managing their households. The symptoms are > by warmth, and < in open air (though in toothache warm drinks <, cold drinks >). Touch <; would like to rub the part but it is too sensitive. Slight passive movements are perceived as enormous; children at times cannot bear to be carried about. Most symptoms are < at night, sleeps till 3 a.m., after which he only dozes.

Relations.─Antidoted by: Acon., Cham., Ignat., Nux, Merc., Puls., Sulph., and especially Tabac. (Teste). Antidote to: Bell., Cham., Cicut., Coloc., Lyc., Nux v., Strych., Valer. It is incompatible with: Canth., Caust., Coccul., Ignat. Followed well by: Aur., Bell., Op., Nux v., Lyc. Compare: Cypr. (ecstasy); Bry. and Cham. (toothache > by cold); Aco. (predicts hour of death); Coca, Codein, Coff. tost.

Causation.─Effects of sudden emotion, especially pleasurable ones. Fear or fright. Wine (wine-drinkers should take coffee; beer-drinkers should take tea). Over-fatigue and long journeys.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Over-sensitiveness; weeping mood.─Great anguish; cannot be composed; is not able to hold the pen; trembles.─Sentimental ecstasy; excited imagination; increased power to think.─Excessive weeping and lamentations over trifles.─The pains seem insupportable, driving to despair.─Fright from sudden pleasant surprises.

2. Head.─Pains in the head, as if the brain were bruised (as if the brain were torn or dashed to pieces).─Semi-lateral cephalalgia, as if a nail were driven into the parietal bone.─In the vertex he feels and hears a cracking, when sitting quietly.─Heaviness of the head.─Congestion in the head, esp. when speaking (or after a pleasant surprise).

3. Eyes.─Eyes lively and red, with unusually clear sight; can read small writing more distinctly.

4. Ears.─Excessive sensibility of hearing.─Musical sounds seem to be too loud, and too sharp.─Hardness of hearing, with buzzing in the ears.

5. Nose.─Epistaxis, with heaviness of the head.─The sense of smell is more acute.

6. Face.─Heat of the face, with redness of the cheeks.

7. Teeth.─Successive pullings, and sharp pains in the teeth, with inquietude, anxiety and tears, esp. at night and after a meal.─Toothache, > by cold water.

9. Throat.─Sore throat; with great and painful sensibility, and swelling of the velum palati; < when swallowing.

11. Stomach.─Taste of hazel nuts, or sweet almonds, in the mouth.─Tobacco-smoke appears particularly agreeable.─Sensation of immoderate hunger, with rapid, hurried eating.─Thirst increased, esp. at night, it wakens him.─Bilious vomiting.─Cramps in the stomach, with pressive, shooting pains.

12. Abdomen.─Anxiety and oppression in the region of the epigastrium.─The clothes are oppressive.─Colic, as if the stomach had been overloaded, as if the abdomen would burst; cannot suffer the clothes to be tight on the abdomen.─Pressure in the abdomen as from incarcerated flatulence.─Abdominal pains which induce despair, esp. in women.

13. Stool.─Faeces soft, with frequent evacuation.─Diarrhoea, also during dentition.

14. Urinary Organs.─Abundant emission of urine, esp. towards midnight.

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Great excitement of sexual desire, with flaccidity or strong irritation of the genital parts; without emission of semen, and with dry heat of the body.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Immoderate irritation of the sexual parts of females, with voluptuous itching, great secretion of mucus, and frequent flow of blood.─Metrorrhagia.─Labour and after-pains insupportably painful.

17, 18. Respiratory Organs and Chest.─Short, jerking, dry cough, with great irritation in the larynx, and anxious tossings.─Oppression of the chest; obliged to take short inspirations; the breathing heaves the chest visibly.─Night cough (cough with measles).─Fits of suffocation.

19. Heart.─Palpitation of heart; violent, irregular, with trembling of limbs.─Nervous palpitation.─Palpitation after excessive joy, surprise.

22. Upper Limbs.─Trembling of the hands, while grasping anything.─Cramp-like contractions of the fingers.

23. Lower Limbs.─Cramps in the calf of the leg, on bending the knee.─Cramps in the soles of the feet on bending the instep.─Trembling of the feet.

24. Generalities.─Painful sensitiveness of the parts affected.─Great flexibility of the muscles, and activity of the whole body.─Mental and physical excitability.─Aversion to the open air, with uneasiness and aggravation of the symptoms during a walk in the open air.─Twitching of the limbs.─Convulsions, with grinding of the teeth, and coldness in the limbs.─Violent shivering, with feverish increase of bodily heat.─Fever with inconsolable anguish.─Shuddering with colic and violent agitation.─The pains are felt intensely, driving to despair, and inclination to weep.─Tears, howls, cries, tossing and discouragement, esp. during the paroxysm of pain.─Cries of children.─Anxiety of heart and of conscience, with apprehensions.─He feels unusually well.─Vivacity and excessive loquacity.─Vivacity and elevation of the imagination, with acuteness of the intellectual faculties.

25. Skin.─Eruptions (measles), with over excitability and weeping.

26. Sleep.─Sleeplessness, from over-excitability of mind and body (sleeplessness of lying-in women).─Sleeplessness from excitement of the imagination, flow of ideas, and fantastic visions.─Inclination to lie down and to shut the eyes, without being able to sleep.

27. Fever.─Chilliness increased by every movement.─Internal chilliness, with external heat of the face and body.─Chills running down the back.─Dry heat in the evening after going to bed, with chilliness in the back.─Nightly, dry heat, with delirium.─Perspiration on the face, with internal chilliness.

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

Coffee (Rubiaceae)

Tall, lean, stooping persons, dark complexion, sanguine choleric temperament. Oversensitiveness; all the senses more acute, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch (Bell., Cham., Opium). Unusual activity of mind and body. Full of ideas; quick to act, no sleep on this account. Ailments: the bad effects of sudden emotions or pleasurable surprises (Caust. - exciting or bad news, Gels.); weeping from delight; alternate laughing and weeping. Pains are felt intensely; seem almost insupportable, driving patient to despair (Acon., Cham.); tossing about in anguish. Sleepless, wide-awake condition; impossible to close the eyes; physical excitement through mental exaltation. (Compare, Senecio, for sleeplessness form prolapsus, uterine irritation, during climacteric.). Headache: from over-mental exertion, thinking, talking; one-sided, as from a nail driven into the brain (Ign., Nux); as if brain were torn or dashed to pieces; worse in open air. Hasty eating and drinking (Bell., Hep.). Toothache: intermittent, jerking, relieved by holding ice-water in the mouth, but returns when water becomes warm (Bis., Bry., Puls., Caust., Sep., Nat. s.).

Relations. - Compare: Acon., Cham., Ign., Sulph. Incompatible: Canth., Caust., Coc., Ign.

Aggravation. - Sudden mental emotion; excessive joy; cold, open air; narcotic medicines.

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

All senses more acute; reads fine print easier; smell, taste and touch acute; unusual activity of mind and body; full of ideas, quick to act, no sleep on this account etc.

Affections from sudden surprises, especially joyful surprises; very emotional.

Pains insupportable, drive to despair; exasperation, tears, tossing about in agony; great sleeplessness.

Headache, from over-mental exertion, thinking, talking; one-sided, as from a nail driven into the brain (Ign., Nux); as if the brain were torn or dashed to pieces; < in open air.

Jerking toothache; relieved by holding ice water in the mouth; returns when water becomes warm.

* * * * *

Coffea cruda, like Chamomilla, acts strongly upon the nervous system. Indeed in nervous troubles, where the patient has not been addicted to the coffee habit, it often takes precedence.

If on the other hand he is a coffee drinker, Chamomilla is the remedy. Doctor Teste, of Paris, used to say that coffee was responsible for a large proportion of the neuralgias of France. The Coffea patient is a subject of very great general exalted sensibility. See Hering's characteristic cards. "All the senses more acute, reads fine print easier, smell, taste and touch acute, particularly also in increased perception of slight passive motions." "Unusual activity of mind and body." "Full of ideas, quick to act, no sleep on this account." "Lively fancies, full of plans for the future." These symptoms portray, as plainly as words can, the nervous conditions calling for this remedy.

It makes one think of Chamomilla, but the mind of Chamomilla is not there. On the other hand, it makes one think of Aconite, but the fear of death is not there. Hering used to recommend Aconite and Coffea in alternation in painful inflammatory affections, where the fever symptoms of the former and also the nervous sensibility of the latter were present, and I know of no two remedies that alternate better, though I never do it, since I learned to closely individualize. Coffea is especially adapted to mental shocks, such as sudden surprises, especially joyful surprises, excessive laughter and playing, disappointed love, noises, strong smells, etc. It is also adapted to variable moods; first crying then laughing, then crying again.

Coffea also vies with Chamomilla and Aconite as a pain remedy. "Pains. insupportable, drive to despair." "Exasperation, tears, tossing about in great anguish." Here again we would not give Coffea in an habitual coffee drinker, but Chamomilla rather.

The particular localities where these pains mostly occur are in the head, where the pain is generally one-sided, feeling "as though a nail were driven into the head". Ignatia has a similar headache, and it generally occurs in hysterical subjects. Then choice may have to be made between these two remedies.

Prosopalgia, which is often traceable to bad teeth, and Coffea has a very peculiar toothache, in the fact that the tooth is easy as long as he holds cold water upon it. Remember Chamomilla toothache is often caused by taking, warm things into the mouth, but is not relieved by taking cold things like Coffea.

Dysmenorrhoea, with excessively painful colic. If there are large black clots and Coffea does not relieve, follow with Chamomilla. Pains threatening abortion, or after-pains, or very severe unbearable labor pains are often relieved by this remedy. In short, for pains anywhere, which seem intolerable, and there are no other especially leading symptoms, Coffea is to be remembered.

The same over-excitability, so characteristic of this drug, causes great sleeplessness, and Coffea has won to itself great credit as a sleep remedy. In my experience and observation, it works best here in the 200th potency. And there is no more beautiful verification of the truth of Similia than just here, for it causes great sleeplessness in many people when taken in large quantities. Cough and sleeplessness after measles (a very common occurrence) is wonderfully relieved by it, and it is sleep, not narcosis, and never injures or sickens the patient like the stupor of the opium preparations.