Ictodes foetida
Alias: Ictod., Pothos foetidus
Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica, William Boericke
Skunk-cabbage-Ictodes (POTHOS FOETIDUS)
For asthmatic complaints; worse from inhaling any dust. Hysteria. Erratic spasmodic pains. "Will-o'-the-wisp" like character of its subjective symptoms and its physometric property are special features (Samuel Jones). Inflation and tension in the abdomen. Millar's asthma.
Head.--Absent-minded, irritable. Headache in single spots, with violent pulsation of temporal arteries. Outward drawing from glabella. Better in open air (Puls). Red swelling across the bridge of the nose.
Abdomen.--Inflation and tension in abdomen.
Respiratory.--Spasmodic croup. Troublesome respiration, with sudden feeling of anguish and sweat.
Sneezing, with pain in throat. Pain in chest, with difficult breathing. Tongue feels numb. Asthma; relieved by stool.
Dose.--Tincture and lower potencies.
A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke
Pothos foetidus. Symplocarpus foetidus. Skunk-weed. Skunk Cabbage. N. O. Orontiaceae (Calliaceae, Orontoidae, allied to Araceae). Tincture of whole fresh plant-including root.
Clinical.─Asthma. Catarrh. Cough. Dropsy. Herpes. Hysteria. Rheumatism.
Characteristics.─The Treasury of Botany thus epitomises the traditional uses of this plant in medicine: "The roots in cases of asthma; the leaves as an application to ulcers. The seeds are also considered to be anti-spasmodic, and useful in coughs." Hering and others proved it, and largely confirmed its popular reputation, as also its clinical relationship to the Arum family. Burning sensations from fauces down throat; enlarged glands of throat; swelling of nose and sneezing; spasmodic cough and skin affections are common to Ictod. and the Arums. Motion <. All complaints > in open air. Asthma is < or caused by dust.
Relations.─Compare: Arum t., Asaf., Meph.
SYMPTOMS.
1. Mind.─Cross; impetuous; inclined to contradict.─Absence of mind and inattention; enters sick-room without knocking, does not listen to patient.
2. Head.─Vertigo and dimness of sight.─Headache in single places, lasting a short while, then changing place; dulness; pressing in temples, now more in one, then more in the other, with violent pulsation of arteries.─Drawing in forehead in two lines from protuberances to glabella, where it draws outward as from a magnet.
5. Nose.─The nose is swollen as far as the nasal bones extend, red like a saddle, sore to touch, < l. side.─Cartilage cold and bloodless, with red spots on cheeks and small pimples on l. side of face.─Violent sneezing, with pains in palate, fauces, and oesophagus to stomach, hurting for a while after in cardiac end of stomach.
6. Face.─Swollen submaxillary glands.
7. Teeth and Gums.─Scurvy.
8. Mouth.─Numbness of tongue, cannot touch teeth with it.─Papillae elevated.─Tongue red and sore on tip and edges.
9. Throat.─Burning from fauces downwards through chest.─Oesophagus painful on sneezing.
10. Appetite.─Inclined to smoke, but it does not taste good.
11. Stomach.─Nausea and vomiting.─With every firm step, pain in pit of stomach as from something breaking loose.
12. Abdomen.─Expansion and tension in abdomen.─Pain in abdomen here and there in single spots.─When walking, sensation as if the entrails were hanging loose and flabby without any pain.
14. Urinary Organs.─Great urging; urine darker.
15. Male Sexual Organs.─Titillation, voluptuous but painful, around corona glandis.
16. Female Sexual Organs.─Amenorrhoea.
17. Respiratory Organs.─Spasmodic asthma.─Sudden anxiety, with dyspnoea and sweat, followed by stool and relief of that and other complaints.─Inclined to take a deep breath: with hollowness of chest; with constriction in fauces and chest.─Asthma, < or caused by dust.─Heaves in horses from dusty hay.─Spasmodic cough.─Senile catarrh.
18. Chest.─Pain in chest and in axillae; seems to have a connection with burning in oesophagus.─Pressing pain in sternum.
23. Lower Limbs.─Aching along r. crista tibiae.
24. Generalities.─Hysterics.─Epilepsy.─Erratic and spasmodic pains.
25. Skin.─Herpes and cutaneous affections.