Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

This medicine is a deep, long acting antipsoric, establishing a state of disorder in the economy that is so far reaching and so long lasting that it disturbs almost all the tissues of the body.

Glands: The complaints are brought on from taking cold, and the glands become affected all over the body. From every little cold the glands become hard and. sore. Infiltration in deep-seated diseases in the region of ulcers and in the region of inflamed parts; in the glands along the course of the lymphatics, so we get a chain like knots.

The glands under the arm inflame and ulcerate. The glands in the neck, in the groin and abdomen become enlarged. Ulcerated parts indurate. An abscess of the breast becomes surrounded by lumps and nodules. Nodules in the breast even where milk has not yet formed; lumps and nodules, indurations and enlarged glands form under the skin all over the body.

Conium has been used extensively for malignant affections of glands, because it takes hold of glands from the beginning and infiltrates, and they gradually grows a stony hardness, like scirrhus.

Now, another grand feature running through this remedy is the action upon the nerves.

Trembling, jerking of the muscles and twitching from the weakness of the nerves. Inability to stand any physical effort without great exhaustion.

Gradually growing paralytic weakness, somewhat as was described in Cocculus. Exhaustion of body and mind, that is a general slowing down of all the activities of the body. The liver becomes indurated, sluggish, enlarged. The bladder is weak, can expel only a part of the urine. Or sometimes there is a paralytic condition and no expulsive power. This shows that the remedy increases toward a paralytic weakness.

Mind: Hysteria. Hypochondriacal state of mind, with the nervousness, trembling and weakness of the muscles. He gets tired in the earlier stages, but finally this goes on until the limbs are paralytic.

A great many of the complaints are painless. The ulcers and the paralytic conditions are painless. Great physical and mental debility; great prostration of the muscular system; exhaustion, tremulous weakness.

Paralysis of the legs and hip. Mental symptoms, nervous symptoms, trembling, in widows and widowers who have suddenly been deprived of their sexual relations.

When in a state of considerable vigor, if suddenly deprived, the woman or the man takes on a state of trembling weakness, inability to stand any mental effort, and inability to put the attention upon things said by others.

Not so marked or not so common in the woman as in the man. When this state comes on in a woman who is of unusual sexual vigor there may be severe congestion of the uterus and ovaries, Apis is more likely to fit her symptoms than Conium. But with hysteria and excitability Conium is often the remedy. Many of its symptoms come about from such a cause.

Conium has such a deep action that it gradually brings about a state of imbecility. The mind gives out. The mind at first becomes tired like the muscles of the body. Unable to sustain any mental effort. The memory is weak.

The mind will not concentrate, it will not force itself to attention; it cannot meditate, and then comes imbecility. Inability to stand any mental effort or to rivet the attention upon anything are some of the most important symptoms in this medicine.

Insanity of a periodical type. Imbecility, though, is far more frequent than insanity. When you come to examine the mental states you will see symptoms that will make you think the patient is delirious, but that is not quite it.

It is a slow-forming weakness of mind; not that rapid, active state, such as accompanies a fever; it is a delirium without a fever, so to speak, which is not constant. Forms of insanity that are passive. He thinks slowly, and he continues in this stage for weeks and months, if he recovers at all.

Those excitable cases that have more or less violence and activity in mental states are such as will correspond to Bell., Stram. and Ars.

You see nothing of that in this medicine. This state of the mind has come on so gradually that the family has not observed it.

The mind is full of strange things that have come little by little, and when the family look over the many things that he has done and said they begin to wonder if he is not becoming insane, but he is traveling toward a state of imbecility.

Conium is of a slow, passive character. Complete indifference; takes no interest in anything, particularly when walking in the open air.

"He is averse to being near people and to talking of those passing him; is inclined to seize hold of and abuse them."

That, of course is an insane act.

"Sad and gloomy.

Great unhappiness of mind, recurring every fourteen days," showing a two weeks periodicity. The Conium patient will sit and mope in the corner in a state of sadness and depression, giving no reason only that he is so sad.

A hypochondriacal subject going around with whims and notions that people attempt to reason him out of, and the more they attempt to reason with him, the more sad he is. Morose, peevish, vexed.

Every thing vexes and disturbs him. Cannot endure any kind of excitement, it brings on physical and mental distress, brings on weakness and sadness. Sometimes Conium symptoms will be found in persons who have suffered from grief; they become broken in memory. This is likely to come first.

They forge, never can recall things just as they want them. And so they grow weaker and weaker until they become imbeciles. If it is decidedly mental, imbecility results; if it is taking physical course the ending is paralysis, and it is not uncommon for general paralytic weakness to come on, so that body and mind progress toward weakness together until some decided manifestation is made, and then it will be seen to be going toward paralysis, or some decided manifestation is made which will send it toward imbecility, and then the body will seem to remain stationary.

There comes a time in these cases where there is a sort of division between the body and the mind. Whenever under homoeopathic treatment the physical, improves and the mental grows worse, that patient will never be cured. There are such cases. I never like to see the physical grow better and the mental grow worse in any degree.

That does not mean the aggravation caused by the remedy. If the mental does not improve it means that the patient is growing worse. There is no better evidence of the good action of a remedy than mental improvement.

Conium patients cannot endure even the slightest alcoholic drink.

Any wine or stimulating beverage will bring on trembling, excitement, weakness of mind and prostration. There are many headaches -in these patients. Patients going into decline will manifest headaches. Stitching, tearing pains in the head; throbbing in the head. Signs precursory to a giving out of the brain. Neuralgia.

Pains: Weakness of muscles. Weakness of muscles on one side of the face. Paralysis of the upper lids. Tingling pains. These are only in keeping with the signs of a general breakdown. We would not think of giving Conium for those sudden, violent congestions of the brain, or sudden, violent attacks of pain in the head, face or eyes, but those that accompany a general progressive disease.

There are stitching, lancinating, knife-like pains along the course of nerves about face and eyes and head. Stitching in the top of the head. Burning on top of the head. Often the symptoms will lead the homoeopathic physician to make a physical examination. A great deal more important than the physical examination are, the symptoms that point out a remedy.

Excitement will bring on headaches. Numbness of the scalp is one of the common symptoms of Conium. It is a general; wherever there is trouble there will be numbness, numbness with pains, very often numbness with the weakness.

Paralytic conditions are attended with numbness. Sick headache with inability to urinate. Great giddiness. Everything in the room seems to go around. Confused feeling in the head. Often sits lost in thought.

Vertigo: Vertigo and pressure in the head with unaltered pulse. Vertigo, worse from stooping. The slightest spirituous drink intoxicates him. Vertigo when turning the head, like turning in a circle, when rising from a seat; worse when lying down, as though the bed were turning in a circle; when turning in bed or when looking around.

The vertigo most common in Conium is that which comes on while lying in bed rolling the eyes or turning the eyes. This is somewhat as it is in Cocculus, not as to vertigo alone, but the general slowed down condition of the muscles. The paresis, or weakness of the muscles all over the body is also present in the eyes.

There is a muscular weakness of all the muscles of the eye, so that the Conium patient is unable to watch moving objects without getting sick headaches, visual and mental disturbances. Riding on the cars, watching things in rapid motion and inability to focus rapidly, slowness of the accommodation is what we must call it is the cause for many sicknesses.

Eyes: Inability to follow moving objects with sufficient rapidity and a headache comes on.

"Objects look red, rainbow colored, striped; confused spots; double vision; weakness of sight. Short sighted; cannot read long without letters running together."

All this is due to defective accommodation.

"Sluggish adaptation of the eye to varied range of vision.

Vision becomes blurred when he is irritable.

Weakness and dazzling of the eyes, together with dizziness.

Aversion to light without inflammation of the eyes."

The pupil will not accommodate itself to the changes between strong light and dim light, and he suffers from it. Severe photophobia and lachrymation. Photophobia without congestion of any tissue without or within the globe of the eye.

Sometimes the pupils are contracted and sometimes dilated. Conium has cured ulcer of the cornea.

"Burning in the eyes when reading."

'Shooting smarting, burning pain in the eyes.

The lids indurate, thicken and are heavy and fall.

It is with, difficulty that he can lift them up.

So this paralysis extends all through the muscles of the body and affects the mind similarly. "

Could scarcely raise the eyelids, they seemed pressed down by a heavy weight.

Burning on entire surface of lids; Hordeola; paralysis of muscles of the eyes."

Glands: A marked condition is that of swelling of the glands about the face, ear and under the jaws. The parotids are swollen and, hard. The same gradually increasing hardness in the sub-maxillary and sublingual glands.

Enlargement of the glands of the side of the neck in cancerous affections. It has cured epithelioma of the lid, and of the nose and of the cheek. Ulcers about the lip with induration. Deep under the ulcer there will be hardness, and along all the vessels that send lymph towards that ulcer there will be a chain of knots.

Paresis extending to paralysis of the oesophagus; difficulty in swallowing; food goes down part way and stops. As food is about to pass the cardiac orifice it stops and enters with a great effort.

"Strange rising in the throat, with sense of stuffing, as if something were lodged there.

Sense of fullness in the throat as of a lump with involuntary attempts at swallowing.

Fullness in throat with suppressed eructations.

Pressure in oesophagus as if a round body were ascending from stomach."

That is a nervous affection found in nervous women and bas been called globus hystericus. When a woman feels as if she wanted to cry, and she swallows and chokes, she will have a similar lump in the throat.

Nervous, broken-down constitutions; tired of life; sees nothing in the future but sickness and sorrow and paralysis or imbecility. When they have their lucid moments they weep, become sad over their enlarged glands and weakness, and have a lump in the throat.

Stomach: There are many stomach troubles; ulceration of the stomach; cancer of the stomach. Conium is one of the greatest palliatives in symptoms of the stomach when all the symptoms agree.

It will palliate cancerous conditions for a while, then on comes the difficulty again, because when the symptoms have advanced sufficiently to indicate Conium many times there is no hope of cure.

Hardness of the abdomen, great sensitiveness of the abdomen. Pinching pains, stitching pains, colicky, cutting pains, cramping pains. Bearing down in the abdomen-in the woman as if the uterus would escape.

Often more common than diarrhoea is constipation with ineffectual urging, hard cool, paralysis of the rectum. Inability to strain at cool, inability to expel contents because of the paralytic weakness of all the muscles that take part in expulsion.

Pulsation and emptiness in the abdomen after a normal stool The woman strains so much at stool that the uterus protrudes- from the vagina. After every stool tremulous weakness and palpitation.

Urines: The urine will stop and start. He strains to, expel the urine and gets tired and stops.

The stream of urine stops and without any pressure whatever it starts again and it does that two or three times during urination. Irregular muscular actions while passing urine.

"Intermittent flow of urine, with cutting after micturition.

Urine turbid after standing."

Weakness of the sexual powers of the male; impotency.

Men: He may have most violent sexual desire yet he is impotent.

"Great sexual desire with partial or complete incapacity.

Emissions without dreams.

Painful emissions and painful ejaculations."

"There is a catarrhal state of the seminal vesicles attended with much soreness, so that when ejaculation takes place there is cutting like a knife, as if the semen were acrid.

Bad effects from suppressed sexual desire in widowers and those who have been accustomed to coition.

"Sexual weakness. Insufficient erection, lasting only a short time; weakness after embrace.

Swelling and induration of testicles."

Hardness and swelling of the testicles gradually comes on.

"Discharge of prostatic fluid on every change of emotion, without voluptuous thoughts, or while expelling faeces; with itching of the prepuce."

Hence we have a strange intermingling of increased irritability of the parts, the neck of the bladder, sexual organs, prostrate gland, with weakness, with impotency.

Women: In the male, remember, there is induration and enlargement of the testicles; in the woman induration and enlargement of the ovaries and uterus.

"Uterine spasms during too early and scanty menses."

Soreness in the abdomen in the early stages of gestation, motions of the child are painful. Burning, stinging, tearing pains in the neck of the uterus.

Great soreness of the breasts. This medicine has dwindling of the mammary glands as well as enlargement and induration. Suppressed menstruation, painful menstruation, throbbing, tearing, burning pains in the uterus and in the ovaries, in the pelvis.

It has cured fibroid tumors of the uterus. It has restrained cancerous growth of the cervix. One of the most distressing growths known to women is a cancerous growth of the cervix. It is the most difficult to check of all the cancerous affections known.

It will progress most rapidly, but Conium is one of those remedies that will slow down that inflammation and restrain somewhat the hemorrhages. Conium has produced induration and infiltration of the cervix.

Respiration and cough: Difficult breathing. Dry cough almost constantly, worse lying in bed. Cough when first lying down. Is obliged to sit up and cough is out.

Taking a deep breath causes cough. Such are the striking features of a Conium cough. In the chest, violent stitches. Painful swelling of the breasts. Rending, tearing pains in the chest.

Back: In the back, weakness is a most striking thing, with some dorsal pains, Lancinating pains are spoken of.

"Ill effects of bruises and shocks to the spine."

After injuries, especially in the lumbar region, pains and filling up of the veins of the lower limbs. Rheumatic pains; paralysis of the lower limbs; ulceration. And the sufferings and conditions are better by letting the limbs hang down.

Conium differs from a great many medicines. It is common for pains and aches to be relieved by putting the feet up on a chair; by putting them up in bed.

But the patient with the rheumatism, with the ulceration of the legs and the other strange sufferings of the legs, will lie down and permit his legs to hang over the bed up as far as the knee. That is something that somebody ought to undertake to account for, so we could have at least one thing we could prescribe for under pathology. But up to date we have no explanation. Tottering gait in middle-aged men.

Another grand feature of the remedy; he sweats copiously during sleep, Sometimes the patient will say that if he merely closes the eyes he will sweat. It is certainly true on closing the eyes preparatory to going to sleep he will break out in a sweat.

Owing to the fact that Conium produces such a marked induration and infiltration of tissues that have been inflamed, stenoses are apt to form where inflammation has been present. Stricture of the urethra and stenosis of the os uteri have been cured by Conium.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Conium Maculatum. Poison Hemlock. N. O. Umbelliferae. Tincture of fresh plant in flower.

Clinical.─Asthma. Bladder, inflammation of. Breast, affections of; painful. Bronchitis. Bruises. Cancer. Cataract. Chorea. Cough. Depression of spirits. Diphtheritic paralysis. Dysmenia (membranous). Erysipelas. Eyes, affections of. Galactorrhoea. Herpes. Hypochondriasis. Jaundice. Liver, enlarged. Melancholia. Menstruation, disordered. Numbness. Ovaries, affections of. Paralysis; Landry's. Peritonitis. Phthisis. Pregnancy, painful breasts during. Prostatitis. Ptoses. Scrofula. Spermatorrhoea. Sterility. Stomach, affections of. Testicles, affections of. Tetters. Trismus. Tumours. Ulcers. Vertigo. Vision, disordered. Wens.

Characteristics.─According to Hahnemann Con. is one of those drugs of which it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish the primary and secondary effects. He thinks, nevertheless, that the primary action is one of "rigidity, condensation, and constriction of the fibres, with swelling of the glands and diminution of the senses." In this Teste concurs, adding that the action is primarily inflammatory, and that this accounts for its suitability for "persons of a lively, quick, sanguine disposition, with a marked development of the glandular system;" and explains why it is characteristically adapted to painful glandular affections, "principally such as result from a strain or blow, but the precise cause of which may have escaped our recollection." Teste places Con. at the head of the analogues of Acon. It is to the glands and capillary system what Acon. is to the heart and arterial system. In many cases Con. may be regarded as the "Aconite of chronic diseases." The other Aconite analogues, according to this author, are Cham., Seneg., Canth., and Phos. ac. Con. corresponds to chronic or subacute inflammation with sanguineous engorgement of the parenchyma, induration, and even subsequent ulceration of the tissues. Thuja represents the slow and progressive hypertrophy of certain tissues, certain constituents of our organs. Stoerck used Conium in his heroic fashion and made with it some notable cures of scirrhous tumours, ulcerating and otherwise; but it was Hahnemann who first showed how the remedy could be used safely as well as effectively. Guernsey writes: "This remedy is characterised by a great dizziness, brought on when lying down, and moving the head ever so slightly, or even the eyes─all the contents of the room appear to whirl around; patient wishes to keep the head perfectly still. In urinating the water flows at first in a full stream, then stops, flows again, again stops," etc. Nash illustrates the modality: < by moving the head. He thinks "turning the head sideways" is the most characteristic form of it. Some give it as "Lying down in bed and turning over," but he regards the "lying down" as the least important part. He cured a patient who had all the symptoms of locomotor ataxy, and who could not, when walking, turn the head the least bit sideways without staggering or falling. A case of lumbago was cured with Con. in six days, after seven months' suffering, this symptom being present: Cannot turn over in bed without being dizzy. < Ascending; by exercise.─Feeling of ball pressing into back over left hip, pain shooting clown left leg, ending in a spot that felt as though pricked by a bunch of hot needles. Under "Sensations" Guernsey gives these: "Heartburn; e.g., in pregnant women where an excessive heartburn comes on, when going to bed at night. Attacks of sick feeling. Sensation as if a hoop, band, or something tight was around the parts. Deficiency of irritability of the body; the body has very little sensation. Darting from within outwards, in the bones; tension in inner parts, also in outer parts; pricking in the bones." Another symptom is "yellow nails." Proell (H. R., xxx. 541) mentions a use of Con. which illustrates the symptom: "Interrupted flow." He has had excellent results with Con. 10 in strangury and ischuria, when the urine cannot be discharged, from nervousness, or swelling of the prostate. (Nat. sul. 5 trit. was effective where the bladder could not be entirely emptied.) Con. has a very marked action on the pelvic organs. Constipation is very pronounced; or there may be diarrhoea. Faintness after stool. Burning, or coldness, in the rectum. Sircar has recorded (Calcutta J. of Med., May, 1896) a striking case illustrating the latter. A patient had severe diarrhoea, for which the doctor was about to give Sulph., when he asked if the stools were hot. "On the contrary, they are cold," replied the patient. Sircar found "cold flatulence" under Con., and gave it on analogy with brilliant effect. On the sexual sphere Con. has profound action, often meeting quite contradictory conditions─hypertrophy or atrophy of glands; excess of function or abrogation. "Unsatisfied sexual desire" is a very leading indication; and sufferings therefrom in either sex are effectually allayed by Con. I have used the remedy with very great good in numberless cases of weakness from masturbation in men and youths. "Emission on the slightest stimulus, such as merely being in the society of a woman," is very typical. Many "engaged" young men have been helped by the remedy. It corresponds more to scanty menses than the opposite. Goodno (Hoyne's Theurapeutics─Amer. Hom., xxi. 386) cured a girl of 25 of severe dysmenia (which had existed since the periods commenced) with scanty, almost arrested flow. She had also epistaxis, cough, and stitches through left lung at times. Two years previously, after unusual excitement, she had bearing-down pains, prolapse, and anteversion. The dysmenia pains were relieved by Sepia and other remedies, but prolapse increased, with bearing-down as though the womb would be forced from vulva, < standing and walking before and during menses; intermittent flow of urine, with cutting after micturition obstinate constipation of long standing; stool (once in seven days) large, hard, followed by tremulous weakness; she must lie down; dull pain below left mamma. Prompt relief and speedy cure were effected by Con. 1m. Scanty menses (especially in old maids) is an indication. Checked lochia. Pains in breast before menses, < by every step, is a strong indication for Con. Also all effects of hurts to the breast by falls or blows. After a blow on the breast a course of Con. should always be given. Nash mentions another characteristic of Con.: "Sweats day or night; as soon as one sleeps, or even on closing the eyes." This enabled Lippe to cure a man of 80 of hemiplegia. R. C. Markham cured with Con. 1m. an obstinate cough, dry, hard, frequent, with asthmatic wheezing or fine rattling in chest on deep breathing, < slightest exposure to cold air; getting into cold bed, or out of a warm one, or even putting arms out was sufficient to bring on severe coughing. The guiding symptom which appeared last and led to the remedy was this: "Pain in the apex of left lung, with soreness in a small spot, midway between neck and shoulder just back of clavicle. The pain, cutting and stitchlike, ran downward and inward toward the sternum. A. H. Birdsall reports a case of contusion of testicle. He found the patient writhing in agony, the pain complained of being "sharp, cutting, running up spermatic cord to lower part of back, and also through scrotum to root of penis". Con. 200 relieved in five minutes, and at the end of twenty minutes the pain was gone (H. P., ix. 190.) Conium corresponds to: light-haired persons; old persons; old, feeble men; old maids and bachelors; women of rigid fibre and easily excited, and also to those of the opposite temperament; persons of strong, sedentary habit more than to lively, slender persons and children; persons who are easily intoxicated with stimulants; women who have scanty menses; scrofulous constitutions; cancers and glandular enlargements. The effects of blows or falls; effects of grief; of over study. Patients who are < when idle. Conium is said to have been, and almost certainly was, the poison with which Socrates was executed; and whether or not this was the case ascending paralysis, which occurred in his poisoning, is an indication for Conium. Benumbed sensation; inability to sustain mental effort; weak memory; tired sensation in brain; imbecility. Hot spots on head. Erysipelas, pain piercing to brain. Red vision. Weakness; tremulousness and palpitation after every evacuation. Sensation of unreality, as if in a dream. Insanity, periodical or alternating. Vertigo < on turning in bed. Accumulation of earwax. Craving for salt, coffee, and sour things. There is the same flatulent tendency as with Ammoniac and Asafoetida, its relatives. Numbness and deadness of limbs. Stabbing pains are a great indication for Conium. Weak-spells; faintness; sudden loss of strength while walking. Paroxysms of hysteria and hypochondriasis from abstinence from sexual intercourse. In phthisis patients cannot expectorate, must swallow sputa. The eye symptoms are very pronounced: photophobia; ptosis, etc. These symptoms are < night and early morning. Most symptoms appear when at rest, especially in the night and in periodical attacks; some when walking in the open air. < During eating; while standing; while lying down (cough); when at rest, when lifting the affected part; when turning in bed (vertigo) moving the head ever so little; turning head sideways. > In the dark; from letting the affected limb hang down; from moving; when walking; by stooping. Aversion to open air. Desire for warmth, especially that of sun. Liability to take cold from least exposure of feet. Great liability to take cold. Night and morning sweat, with offensive odour and smarting in skin; or offensive odour without sweat. Touch <, cannot bear the pressure of tight clothing. Jar, shock, or fall <.

Relations.─Conium should be compared with Aethusa, Oenan., Phell., Petrosel., Ammoniac., Asafoet., and other Umbelliferae. It is antidoted by: Coff., Dulc., Nit. ac., and Nit. Sp. dulc. It antidotes: Merc., Nit. ac., Sul. Compatible: Arn., Ars., Bell., Calc., Lyc., Nux, Phos., Puls., Rhus, Stram. Incompatible: I have sometimes found Con. disagree with patients who had been taking Psorin. Compare: in swelling and painfulness of breasts before and during menses, Calc. (Con. precedes and follows Calc. well in Calc. subjects who have scanty menses; Bell. corresponds to Calc. in other respects); in scanty menses, Graph.; in suppressed lochia, Nux, Hyo., Pul., Secal.; as if in a dream, Ambra, Anac., Calc., Can. ind., Stram.; ascending paralysis, Hydrocy. ac., Mang. (descending, Merc.); paralysis, post-diphtheritic, Gels.; sexual melancholia, Zn. ox.; vertigo when turning in bed, Sil. (Sil. has vertigo when turning to left, whilst lying down); < beginning to move, > by continued motion, Rhus; bruised glands, Sul. ac. Impotence, Phos.; weakness after stool, Phos. (most marked), Nux.

Causation.─Contusions. Blows. Grief. Sexual excess. Sexual abstinence. Excitement. Over-work. Snowy air. Spring.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Hysterical anguish, with sadness and great inclination to weep, from suppression of, or from too free an indulgence in, the sexual instinct.─Anthropophobia, and yet fear of solitude.─Timidity of character (fear of robbers).─Superstitious ideas.─Disposition to be frightened.─Ill-humour and moroseness.─Hypochondriacal indifference.─Want of mental energy.─Inaptitude for labour.─Irritability, and disposition to be angry.─Derangement of ideas and mania.─Confusion of ideas, as from drowsiness.─Slowness of conception.─Weakness of the intellectual faculties, and of the memory.─Ready forgetfulness; excessive difficulty of recollecting things.─Delirium.

2. Head.─Intoxication, after having taken the smallest quantity of spirituous liquid; even wine and water in small quantities intoxicates him.─Vertigo when turning in bed; feels as if the bed were floating.─Whirling vertigo on rising, and sometimes so as to cause a fall, sideways, on looking behind (on looking around); or when lying down in bed, esp. in the morning.─Attacks of headache, with nausea, and vomiting of mucus.─Lancinating pain, esp. in the vertex.─Stupefying pains in the head, esp. when walking in the open air, first in the fore-part of the head, later in the back part, with coryza; relieved on stooping and moving the head.─Excessive sensibility of the brain, even to talking, and to any other noise.─Quotidian headache, on account of insufficient evacuations.─Semi-lateral pains in the head, as if it were bruised.─Tearing in the temples and sides of the head, with the sensation as if the brain were gone to sleep; worse from contact, motion, and after eating; better in a recumbent position, or while stooping.─Headache as if the head were beaten to pieces, or would be pressed asunder.─Downward pressure as from a stone on top of the frontal bone.─Sticking in head while coughing.─Sensation as if there were a large foreign substance in the head.─Heaviness and fulness in the head, esp. on waking in the morning.─Pulling in the head, with numbness of the brain.─Hydrocephalus; the pains are < when awaking, after eating, in the open air; > on external pressure, on lying down, and on closing the eyes.─Attack of tearing headache, which forces the patient to lie down.─Obstinate shooting pains in the sinciput, which seem coming through the forehead.─Hot flush in occiput; later in head.─Heaviness, and squeezing, as from a claw, in the forehead, and as if proceeding from the stomach.─Apoplexy with paralysis (in old people).─Falling off of the hair.

3. Eyes.─Aching of the eyes when reading.─Itching below the eyes, with burning and smarting pain when they are rubbed.─Itching, shootings, or smarting in the internal canthi.─Sensation of cold, or burning, in the eyes, when walking in the open air.─Pain, as of burning in the eyes, with aching in the orbits in the evening.─Inflammation and redness of the sclerotica.─Hordeolum.─(Specks in the cornea.).─Cataract from contusion.─Short-sightedness.─Yellow colour of the sclerotica.─Eyes dull.─Eyes prominent.─Tremulous look.─Obscuration of the sight.─Momentary blindness by day in the brightness of the sun.─Myopia.─Presbyopia.─Diplopia.─The lines seem to move while reading.─Black spots and coloured bands before the sight, in a room.─Red appearance of objects.─Dazzling of the sight by the daylight.─Aversion to light without inflammation of the eyes.─Photophobia, with pale red colour of the ball of the eyes.

4. Ears.─Tearings and shooting in the ears, and round the ears, esp. when walking in the open air.─Accumulation of cerumen, which resembles mouldy paper, and which is mixed with purulent mucus.─Blood-coloured cerumen.─Roaring and humming in both ears.─Buzzing, tinkling, and rumbling in the ears.─Painful sensibility of hearing.─Diminution of hearing, ceasing when the cerumen is removed, and until it is renewed.─Swelling and induration of the parotids.

5. Nose.─Swelling of the nostrils.─For several days tip of nose thick red, hot, painful, < l. side; later a yellow blister full of pus appeared l. side of lip.─Purulent discharge from the nose.─Nasal haemorrhage, frequent when sneezing.─Increased acuteness of smell.─Too frequent sneezing.─Troublesome sensation of dryness in the nose.─Obstinate stoppage of the nostrils.─Stoppage of the nose in the morning.

6. Face.─Heat in the face.─Complexion sickly, pale, and bluish, sometimes even with swelling of the face.─Fissures in the skin of the face, with pain as from excoriation after washing and wiping.─Nocturnal pains in the face, tearing and shooting.─Itching, eruptions, tetters and gnawing ulcers on the face.─Moist and spreading herpes in the face.─Eruptions of pimples on the forehead.─Dryness and exfoliation of the lips.─Blisters and ulcers on the lips.─Cancerous ulcer on the lip (from the pressure of the pipe).─Spasmodic clenching of the jaws.─Grinding of the teeth.

7. Teeth.─Odontalgia, generally drawing, provoked by walking in the open air, or excited in hollow teeth by cold food.─Shootings, jerks, gnawing, and piercing in the teeth.─Gums swollen, ecchymosed and bleeding.

8. Mouth.─Dryness of the mouth and of the throat; or salivation.─Embarrassed speech.─Tongue stiff, painful, swollen, dry; covered with dirty mucus.─Horribly offensive tongue.─(Cancer of tongue.)

9. Throat.─Sore throat, as from a ball (globus hystericus) mounting from the epigastrium.─Impeded deglutition.─Involuntary deglutition, esp. when walking in the wind.─Constant want to swallow, when walking against the wind.─Cramps in the gullet.─Scraping in the throat.─Spasmodic constriction of the throat.

10. Appetite.─Bitterness in the mouth and in the throat.─Putrid or acid taste in the mouth.─Total absence of appetite, and great weakness of digestion.─Bread will not go down, and does not please the taste.─Bulimy.─Desire for coffee or for acid or salt food.─During a meal, and esp. after taking milk food, a sensation of inflation in the stomach, and in the abdomen, and speedy satiety.─After a meal, sourness, pyrosis, pressure and fulness in the stomach, risings, colic, flatulency, nausea, deadness in the fingers, weakness, fatigue, and sweat.

11. Stomach.─Empty risings, frequent and noisy, sometimes during the entire day.─Abortive risings, with sensation of fulness in the hollow of the throat.─Risings, with taste of food.─Suppressed eructations, with subsequent pain in the stomach.─Pyrosis, ascending up into the throat, sometimes after a meal.─Acid regurgitation, esp. after a meal.─Nausea with inclination to vomit, and complete loss of appetite, or else with eructations and lassitude.─Nausea after every meal, or in the evening.─Nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.─Vomiting of mucus.─Pressure on the stomach, even during a meal.─Inflation of the stomach.─Cramp-like, contractive pain, shootings, and pain as from excoriation, in the stomach and in the epigastrium.─Sensation of soreness and rawness of the stomach and of the abdomen when walking on the stones.─Pain, with sensation of cold in the stomach.

12. Abdomen.─After taking milk sensation of inflation of the abdomen.─Tensive pain in the hypochondria, as from a band tightly fastened.─Hardness of the abdomen from swelling of the mesenteric glands.─Pressure, traction, tearings, and shootings in the hepatic region.─Lancination in the left hypochondrium, even in the morning in bed, with oppression.─Lancinations in the abdomen, as if knives were plunged in; stitches in the spleen.─Fulness of the abdomen, even in the morning on waking.─Swelling of the mesenteric glands.─Contraction of the abdomen, with oppression.─Spasmodic colic.─Incisive and tearing abdominal pains.─Movement and digging in the umbilical region.─Sensation as of excoriation in the abdomen, esp. when walking on the pavement.─Noise and borborygmi in the abdomen.─Expulsion of cold wind, with cuttings.─Incarceration of flatus.─Cuttings on expelling flatus.

13. Stool and Anus.─Constipation with tenesmus.─Constant urging without stool.─Hard evacuations, only every second day.─Hard stool, with tenesmus (headache; discharge of prostatic fluid).─Loose, undigested evacuations, with cuttings, and frequent risings.─Debilitating diarrhoea.─(Stools undigested, with colic.).─Lancinations in the anus.─Heat and burning sensation in the rectum, while evacuating, and at other times.─Emission of fetid or cold flatulence; (stool feels cold).─Faeces, with streaks of blood.─After the evacuations, weakness, palpitation of the heart, frequent expulsion of flatulence, and trembling.─Involuntary discharge of faeces during sleep.

14. Urinary Organs.─Pressure on the bladder, as if the urine were going to issue forth with violence (with stitches); worse when walking, better when sitting.─At night, emission of urine, frequent, and sometimes involuntary.─Flow of urine, attended by violent pain.─Urine thick, white and turbid.─Urine red.─Retention of urine.─Difficult emission of urine, which flows only drop by drop.─Nocturnal urination.─Wetting the bed.─Diabetes, accompanied by great pain.─Frequent inclination to emit urine, which is clear and aqueous.─Viscid mucus, mixed with the urine, which cannot be passed without great pain.─Discharge of pus from the urethra.─Emission of blood, sometimes with difficulty of respiration.─The urine stops suddenly, and does not begin to flow again for some moments.─Incisive pains in the urethra during the emission of urine.─Burning sensation and shootings in the urethra, esp. after the emission of urine.

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Swelling of the testes (after contusion).─Cutting pain through scrotum to root of penis.─Lasciviousness.─Impotence, insufficient erections, and absence of erections.─Want of energy in coition.─Erections imperfect, and of too short duration.─Easy emission of semen, even without firm erections.─Dejection, after coition.─Immoderate pollutions.─Flow of prostatic fluid during evacuation, and after any mental emotion.─With weakness of sexual organs, much sexual erethism, amatory thoughts, even emissions provoked by mere presence of women.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Cramps in the uterus, with pinchings or contracting, or with digging above the vulva, accompanied by tension in the abdomen, and shootings extending into the l. side of the chest.─Itching in the external and internal genital parts.─Shootings in the vagina, and sensation as of bearing down.─Shooting in the labia.─Catamenia premature and too weak.─Suppression of catamenia.─Before the catamenia, pains in the breasts; anxious dreams, dry heat, pain as from fatigue in the limbs, lachrymose humour, inquietude, and hepatic pains.─During the catamenia, sensation of bearing down and dragging in the thigh, or painful cramps in the abdomen.─Suppressed menstruation (with barrenness).─Burning, acrid, corrosive, and pungent leucorrhoea, accompanied or preceded by colic.─Breasts flabby.─Inflammation of the mammae, with stitches; scirrhus of the mammae after contusion.─Scirrhous induration of the mammary glands, with itching and shooting pains.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Catarrh, with fever, sore throat, and want of appetite.─Hoarseness.─Dryness in one small circumscribed place in the larynx, and tickling which excites coughing.─Cough provoked by tickling and scraping in the throat.─Dry cough, provoked by a tickling, with oppression of the chest, and fever in the evening.─Suffocating cough, with flushes of heat in the face.─Dry, convulsive cough.─Cough, like whooping-cough, with sanguineous expectoration, or in violent fits during the night, caused by itching in the chest and throat, or from a small dry spot in the larynx, without expectoration at night, and difficult, bloody, purulent, offensive expectoration during the day.─The cough manifests itself generally at night or in the evening.─Shortness of breathing when walking; suffocative attacks; oppressed breathing, in the morning, when waking.─Cough provoked by taking a deep breath, or by taking acid or salt things.─Loose cough, but without expectoration; he must swallow what he coughs up.─Yellow and purulent expectoration, of a putrid smell.─Cough increased by lying down.─During the cough, pains in the head or in the abdomen, with shootings in the l. side aggravated by movement.─Cough during pregnancy.

18. Chest.─Short respiration when walking, and on the least movement, often with convulsive cough.─Cough relieves the tightness of the chest.─Difficulty of respiration, even in the morning on waking.─Respiration difficult and slow, esp. in the evening in bed.─Difficulty of respiration, with pains in the chest, in the evening in bed.─Fits of suffocation, as if there were an obstruction in the throat.─Shooting in the sternum, or in the side of the chest.─Beating stitch, with pain in upper and l. part of chest towards the centre of the chest.─Pressure behind sternum and desire to breath deeply.─Violent pains in the chest, with violent cough.─Pressure on the chest, in the sternum, and in the region of the heart.─Drawing pains in the chest.─Shocks in the chest.─Caries of the sternum.

19. Heart.─Palpitation of the heart, esp. after drinking.─Frequent shocks in the region of the heart.

20. Neck and Back.─Tension in the nape of the neck.─Pain as from excoriation in the vertebrae of the neck.─Enlargement of the neck.─Pains in the loins on bending backwards.─Aching and compression above the hips.─Pressive, cramp-like, and tractive pain in the back.─Pain, as from a sprain in the l. side of the back and neck.

22. Upper Limbs.─Shoulders painful, as if they had been bruised and excoriated.─Humid, scabby, and burning tetters in the forearms.─Numbness of the hands, and esp. of the palms of the hands.─Cracking in the wrist-joint.─Sweat in the palms of the hands.─Torpor of the fingers.─Itching in the back of the fingers.─Yellow spots on the fingers and yellowish nails.─Panaris.

23. Lower Limbs.─Drawing pains in the hips.─Arthritic pains in the knee, tearing, and tensive, aggravated on beginning to walk after sitting down, with a sensation as if the tendons were too short (during the suppression of catamenia).─Restlessness and heaviness in the legs.─Lassitude in the knees.─Cracking of the knee-joint.─Painful swelling of the legs and of the feet.─Red spots on the calves of the legs, sometimes painful, becoming subsequently green or yellow, as after a blow or bruise, and impeding the movement of the foot, which is drawn back, as if the tendons were contracted.─Cramps in the calves of the legs.─Coldness, and strong disposition to take cold in the feet (even from a slight exposure of the feet).─Torpor and insensibility of the feet.─Pustules in the feet.

24. Generalities.─Cramps and cramp-like pains in different parts.─Pain, as from fatigue in the limbs and joints, while at rest.─Nocturnal pains and sufferings, which disturb sleep.─The symptoms appear during repose, and are aggravated on beginning to walk, or by any movement.─Tendency to strain the lower part of the back.─Attacks of hysteria and hypochondriasis.─Shocks in the tendons, trembling and convulsive shakings in the limbs.─Ebullition of blood.─Dropsical swellings.─Swelling and induration of the glands, with tingling and shooting pains.─Fainting fits.─Great general dejection, with involuntary laughter.─Sensation of fatigue esp. early in the morning in bed.─Restlessness in the body, esp. in the legs.─Want of energy, and nervous debility.─Consumption.─Sudden sinking, while walking.─Great liability to take cold.─Great fatigue and other sufferings, from walking in the open air.─Continued deprivation of natural vital heat.

25. Skin.─Shootings, and pricking itching in the skin.─Swelling of the glands, with tingling and stitches after contusions and bruises.─Bluish colour of the skin over the whole body.─Painful inflammation of the skin.─Nettle-rash in consequence of violent bodily exercise.─Pimples, like those in scabies, which become scurfy.─Brownish, or red and itching spots, over the whole body, which disappear and return.─Humid, or scabby and burning tetters.─Blackish ulcers, with sanious, sanguineous, and fetid discharge, and tingling tension.─Gangrenous ulcers.─Ulceration of the bones.─Panaris.─Petechiae.─Reddish and greenish spots, as from ecchymosis.

26. Sleep.─Drowsiness during the day, even very early in the morning.─Somnolence.─Inclination to sleep in the evening, with falling down of the eyelids.─Tardy sleep.─Disturbed and unrefreshing sleep, with lachrymation, and frequent, anxious, and frightful dreams.─Dreams of disease, mutilation, death, danger, and quarrels.─At night, headache, nausea, gastralgia, bleeding of the nose, pains in the limbs, etc.─Half-waking after midnight, with great anguish.─Nightmare.─Starting of the limbs during sleep.

27. Fever.─Shivering, frequent coldness and shuddering.─Coldness and chilliness in the morning and forenoon.─Chilliness, with desire for heat, esp. in the sunshine.─Heat internally and externally, with great nervousness.─Dry, internal heat.─Slow fever, with total want of appetite.─Inflammatory fever with great heat, abundant sweat, anorexia, diarrhoea, and vomiting.─Fever with inflammation of the throat, and cough.─Pulse irregular; generally slow and full, alternating with small and frequent beats.─Nocturnal sweat, even at the commencement of sleep.─Heat with profuse perspiration.─Perspiration day and night, as soon as one closes the eyes and goes to sleep.─Local, fetid, and acrid sweats.

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

Hemlock Poison (Umbelliferae)

The "Balm of Gilead" for diseases of old maids and women during and after climacteric. Especially for diseases of old men; old maids; old bachelors; with rigid muscular fibre; persons with light hair who are easily excited; strong persons of sedentary habits. Debility of old people; complaints caused by a blow or fall; cancerous and scrofulous persons with enlarged glands; rigid fibre. No inclination for business or study; indolent, indifferent, takes no interest in anything. Memory weak, unable to sustain any mental effort. Morose; easily vexed; domineering, quarrelsome, scolds, will not bear contradiction (Aur.); excitement of any kind causes mental depression. Dreads being alone, yet avoids society (Kali c., Lyc.). Glandular induration of stony hardness; of mammae and testicles in persons of cancerous tendency; after bruises and injuries of glands (compare, Aster. rub.). Breasts sore, hard and painful before and during menstruation (Lac c., Kali c.). Vertigo: especially when lying down or turning in bed; moving the head slightly, or even the eyes; must keep the head perfectly still; on turning the head to the left (Col.); of old people; with ovarian and uterine complaints. Cough: in spasmodic paroxysms caused by dry spot in larynx (in throat, Act.); with itching in chest and throat (Iod.); worse at night, when lying down, and during pregnancy (Caust., Kali br.). Great difficulty in voiding urine; flow intermits, then flows again; prostratic or uterine affections. Menses: feeble, suppressed; too late, scanty, of short duration; with rash of small red pimples over body which ceases with the flow (Dul.); stopped by taking cold; by putting hands in cold water (Lac d.). Leucorrhoea: ten days after menses (Bor., Bov.); acrid; bloody; milky; profuse; thick; intermits. Bad effects: of suppressed sexual desire, or suppressed menses; non-gratification of sexual instinct, or from excessive indulgence. Aversion to light without inflammation of eyes; worse from using eyes in artificial light; often the students' remedy for night work; intense photophobia (Psor.). Sweat day and night, as soon as one sleeps, or even when closing the eyes (Cinch.).

Relations. - Patients requiring Conium often improve from wine or stimulants, though persons susceptible to Conium cannot take alcoholic stimulants when in health. Compare: Arn., Rhus in contusions; Ars., Aster, in cancer; Cal., Psor. in glandular swellings. Is followed well: by, Psor. in tumors of mammae with threatening malignancy.

Aggravation. - At night; lying down; turning or rising up, in bed; celibacy.

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Vertigo, especially < on turning the head, or looking around sidewise, or turning in bed.

Swelling and induration of glands, after contusions or bruises.

Cancerous and scrofulous persons with enlarged glands.

Urine flows, stops and flows again intermittently, prostatic or uterine affections.

Breasts sore, hard and painful during menstrual period.

* * * * *

This is another of the so-called spinal remedies. I will not, as I did under Cocculus quote what authorities say from a pathological standpoint. All seem to agree that it paralyzes from below upwards, and the poisoning of Socrates with it is adduced in illustration. It ought to be a remedy for locomotor ataxia The strongest characteristic I know, from a homoeopathic standpoint, it its peculiar vertigo, which is much aggravated by turning the head sidewise. (Coloc., turning head to left). Turning over in bed is the same. Some say lying down in bed and turning over. I have found that it is not so much the lying down as it is the turning of the head sidewise, whether in an upright or horizontal posture.

I once treated a case of what seemed to be locomotor ataxia with this remedy.

The patient had been slowly losing the use of his legs; could not stand at the dark; and when he walked along the street would make his wife walk either ahead of him, or behind him, for the act of looking sidewise at her or in the least turning head or eyes that way would cause him to stagger or fall.

Conium cured him. It would always aggravate at first, but he would greatly improve after stopping the remedy. The aggravation was just as invariable after taking a dose of Fincke's c. m. potency as from anything lower, but the improvement lasted longer after it.

Taking an occasional dose from a week to four weeks apart completely cured him in about a year. It was a bad case, of years' standing, before I took him.

I have often verified this symptom in the vertigo of old people, where it is most frequently found; but it also often accompanies various affections in all ages, and especially is found in ovarian and uterine affections. I know of no remedy that has this symptom so strongly.

There is a form of ophthalmia in strumous subjects which calls for Conium in preference to any other remedy, and the peculiar, prominent and uncommon (as Hahnemann says, Organon, § 153) symptom is, photophobia, intense, out of all proportion to the objective signs of inflammation in the eye. The pains are worse at night and terribly aggravated by the least ray of light, relieved in dark room and by pressure.

There may or may not be ulcers on the cornea. Conium is also one of our best remedies for falling of the eyelids, as are three other remedies, viz: Gelsemium, Causticum and Sepia. "Swelling and induration of glands, with tingling and stitches after contusions or bruises." Many cases of lumps or swellings in the breasts (for which Conium seems to have a particular affinity) have disappeared under the action of this remedy. Even cancerous affections of breasts (Asterias rubens), uterus and stomach have been helped or cured, especially if the trouble seems to have originated in a blow or injury to the part. It is perhaps the first remedy to be thought of in all cases of tumors, scirrhous or otherwise, coming on after contusions, especially if they are of stony hardness and heavy feeling. Conium and Silicea both have hardness of mammae, Conium right, Silicea left nodules (Carbo animalis, Conium, Silicea); acute lancinating pains. (Asterias). Again it is to be especially considered if at every menstrual period the breasts become large, sore and painful, aggravated by the least jar or walking.

In all the scirrhous affections of the breast, womb or other parts the pains of Conium are burning, stinging, or darting, and may make one think of Apis mellifica. The other symptoms must then decide between them.

Conium has marked action upon the sexual organs. In the male there is great weakness of the organs. He has intense desire and amorous thoughts, but is unable to perform. He has emissions at the very thought or presence of a woman. The erections are insufficient, last only a short time, or "go back" on him in the act of embrace, and he suffers with weakness and chagrin afterwards. This affects the mind and hypochondriasis of the bluest blue takes possession of him.

This condition of mind may obtain in both sexes; as a result of too free, and also especially too infrequent indulgence; or, excessive abstemiousness. Hence Conium becomes a good remedy for old bachelors and old maids. If the vertigo is also present in such cases Conium is sure to be of great benefit.

Intermittent flow of urine is very characteristic (Clematis). One might think that this was owing to a paralytic condition of the bladder. I don't know; but I do know that the symptom often occurs in the hypertrophy of the prostate gland incident to old age and Conium helps. "Sweats day or night; as soon as one sleeps or even when closing the eyes", is a characteristic found under no other remedy that I know of. (Reverse Sambucus).

Dr. Adolph Lippe once made a splendid cure of complete one-sided paralysis in a man 80 years of age with this remedy, and was guided to it by this symptom. I think it would be rather a difficult task to give a correct pathological explanation of such a symptom; but there is a reason, and whether we can give it or not we can cure it if we have a corresponding one appearing under a remedy; where a cure is at all possible.

It is interesting to follow out the connections of symptoms.

Take for instance the single prominent symptom of Conium, vertigo.

Vertigo on turning the head, Con., Calc. ost., Kali c.

Vertigo on moving the head, Bry., Calc. ost., Con.

Vertigo on looking up, Puls., Silic.

Vertigo on looking down, Phos., Spig., Sulph.

Vertigo from odor of flowers, Nux v., Phos.

Vertigo on watching, or loss of sleep, Cocc., Nux vom.

Vertigo on the least noise, Therid.

Vertigo while walking, Nat. m., Nux v., Phos., Puls.

Vertigo while studying, Nat. m.

Vertigo while or after eating, Grat., Nux v., Puls.

Vertigo as if whirling, Bry. Con., Cyclam., Puls.

Vertigo as if the bed turned, Con.

Vertigo with fainting, Nux vom.

Vertigo with staggering, Arg. nit., Gels., Nux v., Phos.

Vertigo with eyes closed, or in dark, Arg. n., Stram., Therid.

Vertigo with dimness of sight, Cyclam., Gels., Nux v.

Vertigo when rising from seat, Bry., Phos.

Vertigo when rising from stooping, Bellad.

Vertigo when rising from bed., Bry., Chel., Cocc.

Vertigo when stooping, Bell., Nux, Puls., Sulph.

Vertigo when ascending, Calc. ost.

Vertigo when descending, Borax, Ferrum.

Vertigo when lying, Con.

Vertigo must lie down, Bry., Cocc., Phos., Puls.

Vertigo occipital, Gels., Sil., Petrol.

Vertigo after sleep, Lach.

Vertigo after suppressed menses, Cyclam., Puls.

A good understanding of such connection often starts the prescriber in the "short cut" route to the remedy in a case.