Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

The best provers of Secale, those who are most susceptible to its action, are scrawny people, and they are the ones who will most likely need it as their curative remedy.

Aspect: Of course, it is not necessarily contra-indicated in fat people. Certain constitutions are mentioned in connection with a remedy as being suited to it, but it must not be inferred that no action will result in others when the symptoms agree. Scrawny people are especially related to Secale.

Emaciated, withered, wrinkled, unhealthy appearance of the skin; purplish, bluish skin, general or in spots; purplish I spots on withered skin, especially where the circulation is feeble as on the back of the hands and feet and on the tibia.

These parts become numb, tingle and wither. The extremities prickle, burn, and tingle; creeping and crawling, as of insects under the skin, as if between the skin and the flesh; numb, dead, wooden sensation in the fingers and especially in the toes.

The toes become black, gangrenous. A senile withering, such as is found in feeble old people; the blood-vessels close up; no blood goes to the toes and they become numb and black, devoid of sensation. Hence, Secale improves the circulation of the aged and postpones senile gangrene.

Burning: is a feature of this remedy; the skin burns; the extremities burn, sensation of burning when the parts feel cold to the touch and really are cold, a sensation of heat with coldness.

Burning, especially of internal parts. Dryness with burning; burning in the stomach and bowels; dryness and burning in the mouth and throat, the nose and air passages; burning in the lungs.

This remedy produces ulceration even to sloughing. Old ulcers take on a strange, withered appearance; dryness with no, granulations; a shiny, blackish aspect and all at once blackish granulations shoot out, indolent, and finally forming a black sphacelus which slowly separates; the part is dry; there is no discharge except now and then a little bleeding of black blood.

Oozing of black, liquid blood, oozing when there is no inflammation; nose-bleed of dark, venous, offensive, fluid blood, bleeding from the throat, lungs, bladder, and rectum, of dark blood; urine like ink.

Women: Prolonged uterine haemorrhage so that one menstrual nisus runs into another; withered subjects; considerable flow on the first day, fluid, and blackish; this goes on for a couple of weeks and then a dark watery flow comes on which lasts until the next period.

Then comes the thick, black, fluid, horribly offensive flow again. Such a state is found in the woman who has taken ergot to produce abortion, or in sensitive women who have been dosed with it to facilitate delivery. Of course, if the woman is not sensitive you will not get the lingering provings,

Some women are so insane that though they die they will get rid of their offspring. On all hands women say,

"I have had no health since I aborted."

The worst state of health is produced by ergot; it establishes a miasm as deep as psora itself. The duke to destroy the offspring is an engraftment on psora and by ergot she takes on a miasm as dangerous as sycosis or syphilis.

I have patients who took ergot to cause abortion, and I can do nothing more than palliate them. They have Secale symptoms, sequelae, and their psoric symptoms are suppressed, held down, just as syphilis holds down psoric manifestations; only by covering the Secale miasm and getting at the psora can we help the patient.

They have placed themselves beyond the help of the physician and the ergot will shorten their lives many years unless they are fortunate enough to have careful prescribing continuously while they live.

Modalities: The general constitutional state is aggravated from heat; there are only a few exceptions to this.

Wants cold though the limbs are cold as ice, wants to be uncovered, wants the windows open; a patient with hemorrhages wants the covers off though the room is cold. A patient with ulcers wants to be uncovered; in inflammatory condition of the stomach and bowels, wants the abdomen uncovered.

At times there is a lingering state of heat of the skin and the patient wants to be covered up; there are also sharp, stinging neuralgic pains, which burn like fire and cut like a knife and are relieved by the application of beat; headache worse in cold air.

But the general state is ameliorated from uncovering, in a cold room, and from cold air blowing on the patient.

Violent inflammation of any part of the body; gangrenous pneumonia; gastritis; peritonitis; inflammation of the uterus and ovaries. In inflammatory conditions it competes with Ars.

The symptoms are so nearly alike in both that it is difficult to differentiate; both have violently distended abdomen; tympanites; burning like coals of fire; violent thirst; extreme sensitiveness and tenderness to touch, so that motion or jar is unbearable; vomiting of blood; expulsion of blood-clots; horrible, offensive, bloody discharge from the bowels; but they are different in the generals. Ars. wants to be covered up, to be kept warm, to have hot applications, either wet or dry, while Secale wants to be uncovered, wants the cold air.

Convulsions: of single parts or of the whole muscular system; opisthotonos; cramps in the calves, thighs, soles of the feet, and hands, hysterical contractures, a hysterical diathesis.

Convulsions begin in the face. Active manias with great excitement; exposes her body and tears at the genitals; puts her finger in the vagina and scratches until the lips bleed; all idea of modesty lost.

The spasms, nervous, and mental symptoms are worse while she is flowing, so that a puerperal convulsion comes on in the midst of a hemorrhage.

From the hemorrhagic tendency and the ability to destroy the red blood corpuscle, there is anemia. The face looks like dried beef, wrinkled, shrivelled, scrawny, as if it had not been washed; as if grey dirt had dried on the skin, and this especially on the extremities a dirty, grey appearance.

Catarrhal affections of all mucus membranes; they are dry and bleed; blood oozes from the catarrhal surfaces, liquid, black, and offensive, coagulating slowly or not at all.

"Nosebleed, blood dark, runs continually, with great prostration, small thread-like pulse; in old people or drunkards; of young women; from debility."

Those poisoned by ergot become victims of opacity of the lens as in senile debility; cataract of old persons.

The withered scrawny person with tendency to ulcerations, unhealthy skin and aggravation from heat, is striking in both acute and chronic states.

Chronic diarrhoea exhaustive, watery discharges, cholera. It is related to Camphor, Scrawny people take cholera, skin cold and blue; better from cold. Violent and continued thirst.

Diarrhoea and hemorrhages are likely to come together; diarrhoea of bloody water or dark liquid blood.

Large doses produce such contractures of the uterus that its contents are expelled and an exhausting hemorrhage follows; expulsion of large clots and in the early stages mixed with some red blood, but the most striking feature is liquid, black discharge.

"Asiatic cholera with collapse, sunken, distorted face, particularly the mouth, crawling sensation as of ants."

Paretic condition; paralysis of lower extremities; of one side; of one arm or one leg; paralysis of the upper extremities with tingling, numbness, and prickling. Numbness and burning down the whole length of the spine; general emaciation or only of diseased part.

Eruptions, abscesses, boils carbuncles; green pus discharged; a green, purplish appearance; boils small with green contents, mature and heal slowly.

Establishes sterility; so weak is the uterus that it can never hold the foetus, hence the value in sterility and repeated abortions.

Dwindling of the mammae. Absence of milk after confinement.

"Thin, scrawny children with shrivelled skin, spasmodic twitchings, sudden cries, feverishness."

Purpura hoemorrhagica. Paralysis of the extremities. Spinal irritation. Cachectic females with rough skin, pustules tending to gangrene.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Secale cornutum. Spurred Rye. Ergot of Rye. [The black, horn-like spur into which the grains of Rye (Secale cereale, N. O. Gramineae) are changed by the fungus Claviceps purpurea.] N. O. Fungi. Tincture of The fresh spurs collected just before harvest.

Clinical.─Abortion, threatened. After-pains. Albuminuria. Anus, incontinence of; open. Asthenopia. Bladder, paralysis of. Boils. Carbuncles. Cataract. Chilblains. Cholera; infantum. Chorea. Convulsions. Cramps. Diabetes. Diaphragm, cramp in. Diarrhoea. Distortions. Dysphagia. Epilepsy. Epistaxis. Feet, cramps in; burning of; coldness of. Fibroma. Gangrene. Gastritis. Glands, swelling of; suppuration of. Goitre. Haematuria. Haemorrhages. Haemorrhagic diathesis. Heart, palpitation of. Hiccough. Hysteria. Impotence. Liver, enlargement of. Lochia, fetid. Lumbago. Menstruation, excessive. Metrorrhagia. Milk, suppressed. Miscarriage. Morvan's disease. Myelitis; diffusa. Nails, degeneration of. Neuralgia. Night-sweats. Numbness. Oesophagitis. Ovaries, tumours of. Paralysis; post-diphtheritic; spastic. Placenta, retained. Post-partum haemorrhage. Pregnancy, false pains of. Purpura, Raynaud's disease. Small-pox, haemorrhagic. Spinal irritation. Stammering. Stomach, cancer of. Strabismus. Stricture, spasmodic. Thrombosis. Tongue, biting of. Typhoid. Ulcers. Uterus, inertia of; neuralgia of; prolapse.

Characteristics.─Rye and grasses are apt to be affected with the Ergot disease in damp seasons, and when grown on damp, ill-drained lands. If breeding cows are turned on pastures where infected grasses grow they are very liable to drop their calves. Ergot has been known as a hastener of parturition from remote times. Its other actions have been for the most part learned from the terrible epidemics of "Ergotism" which have occasionally devastated districts in which Rye infected with Ergot has been ground into flour and eaten by the population. Death takes place in convulsions; or else from gangrene and consequent exhaustion; or from exhausting haemorrhages or discharges, as diarrhoea. Many who escape immediate death are reduced to a cachectic state, from which they never recover; are paralysed, have limbs distorted and senses impaired. In general the sufferer retains a clear intellect and a good, even abnormally good, appetite to the last. The nervous symptoms of Sec. are convulsive. The body is at times rigid; at times rigidity alternates with relaxation. This is especially seen in the hands, which are either clenched or have the fingers spread widely apart (a keynote symptom). The muscles of the face and abdomen twitch. There is incontinence or retention of urine. Spasmodic retching, the stomach is violently contracted. Through the like action on the vaso-motor nerves there is first contraction and then dilatation of blood-vessels; the fingers turn bluish black. This stagnation leads to dry gangrene of the parts. Sec. shrivels up the skin, makes it dry and harsh; sallow complexion. It is therefore suited to─thin, scrawny women, feeble and of cachectic appearance; women of irritable, nervous temperament; of pale, sunken countenance. To very old, decrepit persons. On the other hand, it is also suited to: Irritable, plethoric subjects. Women of very lax muscular fibre; everything seems loose and open; no action, vessels flabby: passive haemorrhages, copious flow of thin, black, watery blood. For Sec. lessens the coagulating power of the blood. and produces a haemorrhagic diathesis; persistent, offensive bleeding. Small wounds bleed persistently. Purpura comes within this category. One grand characteristic of Sec., which will determine its selection in many cases, is: "< By external heat." This applies to cholera, purpura, gangrene, and any condition which may present symptoms of Sec. In cholera cases calling for Sec. the patient is cold, almost pulseless; there are spasmodic twitchings of muscles in various parts (especially spreading of fingers), eyes sunk, features pinched; surface harsh, shrivelled, dry, as though no moisture were left in the body. Though cold to the touch, cannot bear to be covered. In spite of this coldness, Sec. has burning among its characteristic sensations: burning in all parts of the body as if sparks were falling on the patient. Another characteristic sensation is numbness; tingling as if ants crawling all over, > from rubbing. This may accompany haemorrhages, loss of other fluids, debility, or skin affections. In the later stages of ergotism there is anaesthesia. The discharges are exhausting and offensive. Diarrhoea is peculiar, involuntary; with wide-open anus. The boils in which Sec. is indicated are small and painful, with green contents, mature very slowly, heal slowly, and are very weakening. The eyes are affected in various ways: Pustulous conjunctivitis; suppuration of cornea; dilated pupils, distortion, and strabismus; ptosis; suppressed tears. Catarrh has been caused in many instances. "< From warmth" will be the leading indication in many eye cases requiring Sec. Exophthalmic goitre has been cured with it; the heart being acted on by Sec. as other hollow viscera, and violent palpitation induced. Sec. has a great affinity for the uterus, whether gravid or not. Though its use in ordinary doses in obstetric practice is attended with danger, it may be used on its homoeopathic indications with perfect safety. It is indicated: (1) In threatened abortion, especially at the third month; prolonged, bearing-down, forcing pains. (2) During labour when the pains are irregular, too weak, feeble, or ceasing; everything seems loose and open, but there is no expulsive action; fainting. (3) For after-pains when too long, too excessive; or when there is hour-glass contraction of the uterus. (4) For suppression or non-appearance of the milk. The menses of Sec. are irregular; copious, dark, fluid; accompanied by labour-like pains in abdomen; there maybe a continuous watery discharge of blood during the whole time between the periods. Teste records this case: A lady, 50, fat, very soft flesh, had flooding which nothing could stop. After several useless attempts, Teste gave large doses of Sec. with scarcely any effect. The patient asked for infinitesimal doses. At that time Teste had no faith at all in infinitesimals, but he yielded to the patient's request, and gave one drop of the 6th. The flooding ceased immediately and permanently. Peculiar Sensations of Sec. are: As if intoxicated while undressing. As if eyes were spasmodically rotated. As of a solid plug in nose. As if tongue paralysed. As if there were some resistance to be overcome in speech. As of a heavy weight in stomach. Region of stomach as if contracted. Anus as if locked up. As if testes being drawn up to inguinal ring. Uterus as if burnt. As if contents of uterus would fall forward. As if soft air were creeping through back. As if sacrum would be forced out. As if something alive creeping under skin. As if fingers asleep. As if limbs had been a long time in hot water. As if sparks of fire falling on different parts. As if mice creeping under skin. Fuzzy feeling in limbs. Sec. is indicated in Suppressions: tears; lochia; milk; sweat. Thirst with dry mouth or burning. Desires lemonade and sour things. Averse to fat and meat. The symptoms are: < By touch. > Lying doubled up in bed. Motion and any exertion <. Walking = giddiness. Many symptoms (cramps, twitchings) < night. Sinking spells 3 a.m. Open air >. Wants to be fanned. Warm applications <. Warm drink <. Wet bandages > labour pains. Cold applications >. < After eating. All symptoms < just before menses. The right side is predominantly affected.

Relations.─Antidoted by: Camph., Op. Compatible: Chi. (Teste classes Sec. with Chi. in his Ferrum group), Ars., Aco., Bell., Merc., Pul. Compare: In labour, Cinnamon ("In post-partum haemorrhage, Cinnamon increases labour-pains, controls profuse or dangerous flooding, is always safe, while Ergot is always dangerous."─H. C. Allen). Labour-like pains, Pul., Sul., Bell., Calc., Caul., Gossyp., Lil. t., Sep., Vib. o. Cold skin, cannot bear to be covered, Camph. > Uncovering, Aco., Calc., Camph., Fer., Iod., Lyc., Pul., Sul., Ver. Haemorrhages, Bovist. (flow between periods; menses flow mostly or only at night or early morning; puffy condition of body; parts feet enormously large), Mitchella (less passive, blood brighter, dysuria with the haemorrhage), Trill. p. (bright red and profuse, faint feeling, rapid, feeble pulse), Ham. (with hammering headache), Erig. (flow in fits and starts; with dysuria), Ust. (flow bright red, partly clotted). Fer. ph., Chi. Haemorrhagic diathesis, Lach., Phos. Cholera, shrivelled up, gangrene, burning sensation, Ars. (but Ars. is > by heat). Cholera collapse, Camph. (sudden), Ver. (cold sweat on forehead). Follicular pharyngitis, K. bi. Cold surface, sunken, pale face, blue lips, tingling in limbs, speech stuttering, Lach. Action on blood-vessels, Bar. c. Diarrhoea discharged with great force, Samb., Crot. t. Anus wide open, Apis, Phos. Threatened abortion at third month, Sabi. Cholera morbus, Colch. Diabetes, Plb. Burning feet, cramp in calves, Sul. Eyes < from warm applications (Asar. > cold washing). Exophthalmic goitre, Lpus., Scut., Thyr. Spastic paralysis, Lath. Old persons, Con. Twitching, coldness, chilblains, cholera, also botan., Agar. Compare also: Ergotinum, which sometimes acts when Sec. is indicated and fails (see case under Ergotinum).

Causation.─Lifting (= abortion). Injury (= gangrene). Sexual excess.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Discouragement and timidity.─Great anxiety.─Sadness and melancholy.─Great anguish.─Furor, with desire to jump into the water.─Madness and inclination to bite.─Fear of death.─Mania.─Weakness of the intellectual faculties (stupid, half-sleepy condition; moaning).─Mental alienation.─Delirium.─Loss of consciousness.─Consciousness seems to continue to the last breath; and just before death it seems as though the patient would improve.

2. Head.─Head confused and stupefied (unconsciousness with heavy sleep, preceded by tingling in head and limbs; in haemorrhages from the uterus).─Sensation as from intoxication while undressing.─Vertigo as from intoxication.─Stupefaction, with tingling in head and pain in limbs, which are < from motion.─Diminution and loss of senses, sight, hearing, etc.─Peculiar feeling of lightness of head, esp. in occiput.─Attacks of vertigo of different kinds, also chronic.─Headache with dull and painful confusion, esp. in occiput.─Semilateral headache (l.).─Hair falls out.─Scalp sore.─Twisting of head to and fro.

3. Eyes.─Eyeballs sunk deep in the sockets; and surrounded by blue margins.─Pupils spasmodically contracted or else dilated.─Convulsed eyes.─Squinting.─Pain in eyes, with feeling as if spasmodically rotated.─Fixed, wild look.─Cataract, hard or soft; with headache, vertigo, and roaring in ears.─Suppuration of cornea; < from warm applications.─Suppressed secretion of tears.─Eyes yellow.─Complete blindness.─Double or triple vision.─Mist, spots and a veil before the sight.─Weakness of sight.─Sparkling before the eyes and cloudiness of sight.─Exophthalmic goitre.

4. Ears.─Humming and roaring in ears; and hardness of hearing.─Undue sensitiveness of hearing, even slightest sound re-echoed in head and made her shudder.─Transient deafness.

5. Nose.─Sneezing.─Nose feels stopped yet watery discharge runs from it.─Nose stopped l. side as with a solid plug.─Nose-bleed: blood dark, runs continuously, with great prostration, small, thread-like pulse; in old people or drunkards; in young women; from debility.

6. Face.─Face discoloured, pale, yellow, wan, with eyes hollow and surrounded by a blue circle.─Distorted features.─Livid spots on face.─Face of a deep red.─Swelling of face.─Tingling in face.─Forehead hot.─Muscular twitchings, usually begin in face and then spread all over body, sometimes increasing to dancing and jumping.─Lips bluish or deathly pale.─Lips and mouth painfully contracted (spasmodic distortion; risus sardonicus).

7. Teeth.─Lockjaw.─Grinding of teeth.─Loosening and falling out of teeth.─Bleeding from gums.─Difficult dentition.

8. Mouth.─Very offensive breath.─Increased secretion of saliva.─Dryness of mouth, with thirst.─Haemoptysis.─Sanguineous or yellowish green foam before mouth.─Tongue discoloured, brown or black; or else loaded with a thick coating (of mucus).─Painful tingling in tongue and throat.─Swelling of tongue.─Stammering, embarrassed, indistinct, weak speech; as if the tongue were paralysed; or there were resistance to be overcome.─Twitching of tongue.─Frequently bites tongue.

9. Throat.─Dryness of throat.─Burning sensation or troublesome tingling or crawling in throat.─Follicular pharyngitis; hawks up little follicular exudation.─Paralysis of muscles of swallowing and speaking; in danger of choking.─Inflammation of the oesophagus.

10. Appetite.─Dulness of the taste.─Burning, insatiable thirst.─Unnatural appetite, even when dying from exhausting discharges from bowels.─Insatiable hunger, esp. for acid things.

11. Stomach.─Frequent risings.─Disgust, esp. for meat and fatty things, and nausea.─Continuous nausea; < after eating.─Nausea and inclination to vomit.─Hiccough.─Retching and vomiting of bilious, crude matter.─Easy vomiting.─Vomiting of food, with great debility.─Vomiting of lumbrici.─Vomiting of mucus.─Vomiting of black bile.─Vomiting of dark brown, coffee-grounds fluid; of all food and drink.─Haemorrhage from stomach.─Stomachache.─Cramp in stomach.─Excessively painful sensibility, distressing oppression (as from a weight), and anguish in pit of stomach, with ineffectual want to vomit.─Burning sensation in scrobiculus and epigastrium.─Great anxiety and pressure in pit of stomach, with great sensibility to touch.─Inflammation and gangrene of stomach.─Inflammation and cancer in stomach.

12. Abdomen.─Abdomen excessively inflated and tight.─Cuttings and tearing pains in abdomen.─Inflammation and gangrene of the liver.─Liver enlarged.─Burning (or coldness) in abdomen.─Fixed, burning pains in splenic and lumbar regions.─Pains in the loins as from false labour pains.─Colic, with pains in sacrum and thighs, frequent risings, and vomitings.─Painful colic, with convulsions.─Sensation of excessive coldness in abdomen and back.─Burning sensation in abdomen.─Strong pulsation in umbilical region.─Borborygmi.─Pains in hypogastric region.

13. Stool and Anus.─Constipation, with continued and ineffectual want to evacuate.─Loose, frequent evacuations, with serous, slimy, or else discoloured or brownish faeces.─Diarrhoea of a putrid smell.─Diarrhoea, with sudden prostration of strength.─Involuntary (very watery) evacuations.─Offensive, watery diarrhoea (in child-bed).─Cholera; diarrhoea after the cholera.─Diarrhoea: frequent brown discharges, dark-coloured; very offensive; thin, olive green; very exhausting; pernicious.─Haemorrhage from the bowels.─Expulsion of worms.─Paralysis of rectum and anus.─Anus wide open.

14. Urinary Organs.─Suppressed secretion of urine.─Scanty, hot, burning urine.─Emission of urine, drop by drop, difficult, scanty, with continued want to urinate.─White urine, clear like water.─Increased secretion of urine.─Urine retained.─Bladder paralysed.─Enuresis: of old people; pale, watery, or bloody urine.─Haematuria; bloody, albuminous urine; thick black blood.─Urinary deposit like white cheese.

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Numerous erections, even after coition.─After lightness in occiput, strong dragging in spermatic cord, so that testes seemed drawn up to inguinal ring.─After sexual excess palpitation of heart.─Weak memory after exhausting coition; impotence.─Chronic spasmodic stricture of urethra.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Catamenia too profuse and of too long duration, sometimes with violent spasms.─Metrorrhagia of a black, liquid blood, flowing esp. during a slight movement, sometimes with tingling in legs and great debility.─Discharge of blood during pregnancy.─Labour ceases, and instead twitchings and convulsions.─Too long and too painful after-pains.─Suppression of milk.─Miscarriage (esp. in third month).─Defective contraction of uterus after miscarriage.─Swelling and warts on the cervix uteri, which is partially open.─Gangrene of vaginal mucous membrane, with a dark, slate colour.─Vagina hot or cool.─Sanguineous congestion in uterus.─Offensive discharge from uterus causing her to vomit (Ussher).─Lochia scanty and fetid, or of too long duration and sanguineous (followed by fever and inflammation of uterus).─Puerperal convulsions.─[Female genital organs in general; pains like labour pains, which are protracted for a long time, skin cold and no wish to be covered, etc.; labour pains ceasing; labour pains too weak; abortion in the characteristic patients.─H. N. G.].─Cancer and gangrene of uterus.─Prolapse of uterus.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Heavy, anxious breathing, with moaning.─Spitting of blood, with or without cough.─Feeble voice, inaudible, stammering.─Expectoration of blood during violent efforts to breathe.─Voice hoarse and hollow.─Painless aphonia in morning, as the day goes on he gets hoarse (produced.─R. T. C.).─Anxious and obstructed respiration, with sighs and sobs.

18. Chest.─Dyspnoea and oppression of chest.─Suffocating oppression of chest, with cramp in diaphragm.

19. Heart.─Praecordial tenderness.─Painful sensation over heart.─Praecordial anxiety.─Violent spasmodic palpitation of heart.─Pulse small, very rapid, contracted; frequently intermittent; fluttering, slow, depressed.

20. Neck and Back.─Stiffness of nape of the neck.─Profuse miliary eruption on nape of neck and chest.─Sensation of coldness in back.─Pain in back and small of back.─Tingling and insensibility in back (extending to tips of fingers and toes).─[Severe pain in (lower) back < when walking much or sitting long in same position.─R. T. C.].─(Lumbago.)

21. Limbs.─Drawing, crawling, tearing, and tingling in limbs and joints.─Distortion of limbs.─Jerks and convulsive movements in limbs, which manifest themselves esp. at night, often also periodically, and which are > by stretching the parts violently.─Contraction of hands, feet, fingers, and toes.─Limbs become cold, pale, and wrinkled, as after being a long time in hot water.─Disagreeable sensation of sleep and formication in limbs.─Cramps in legs, calves, arms, hands, and toes.─Burning of hands and feet.─Fuzzy feeling in limbs.─Cold gangrene of the limbs; the dead part separates at the joints and drops off.─Trembling of limbs.─Weakness, heaviness, and torpor of limbs.─Numbness, insensibility, and coldness of limbs, esp. tips of fingers and toes.

22. Upper Limbs.─Spasmodic curvature of the arm, with drawing in the part.─Burning sensation in the hands.─Swelling of the hands, with black pustules.─Oedematous swelling in the wrist.─Distortion of the hands.─Tingling, crawling, with numbness and insensibility in finger-tips.─Contraction, distortion, and turning back of the fingers.─Spasms with fingers spread apart.─Peculiar prickling in tips of fingers that are very sensitive to cold after awhile they began to suppurate, and later the nails separated from their matrix and fell off one after another, leaving an unhealthy granulating surface.─Degeneration of pulp of nails, the nails are raised.

23. Lower Limbs.─Lassitude and soreness in the legs.─Contraction of the legs and toes.─Distressing cramps in calves and soles, esp. at night.─Burning sensation in (swollen) feet.─Distortion of feet.─Swelling of feet, with black pustules.─Feet seem asleep and stiff.─Mortification of toes.─Gangrena senilis.─Tingling in toes.

24. Generalities.─For female complaints chiefly, and esp. when occurring in thin, scrawny, wrinkled females or children.─Skin is cold, but the patient does not wish to be covered up.─Copious vomiting of a mixture of thick, black, pitchy, bilious, and slimy matter.─Dry gangrene, particularly on r. side, beginning in toes and running up the limb.─Amaurosis occurring in patients characteristic of this drug; hard hearing; blue colour around eyes.─< From drawing up limbs; esp. in troubles of childbed.─> From stretching out the limbs.─Drawing, tearing, and tingling in the limbs and joints.─Violent and wandering spasmodic pains.─Cramps in legs, arms, and chest.─Burning sensation in all parts of the body, as if caused by sparks.─Tonic spasms; of all extensors.─Tetanus.─Epileptiform convulsions.─General atrophy and emaciation.─Rapid emaciation of paralysed parts.─Unsteady gait; unsteadiness of the whole body; trembling; rapid sinking of strength.─Collapse when the patient cannot bear covering.─Syncope.─Great lassitude and indolence.─Paralysis.─Complete mortification of some parts by sphacelus.─Affections in general of r. side; crooked limbs; sensation of deadness in any part.─Loss of sensation throughout the body.

25. Skin.─Skin sallow, lead-coloured, flaccid, and shrivelled.─Skin rough and dry.─Torpor and insensibility of the skin.─Miliary eruption, esp. on chest and nape of neck.─Petechiae.─Purpura haemorrhagica.─Ecchymosis.─Furunculi.─Swelling and pain without inflammation; coldness, blue colour, gangrene.─Black, gangrenous pustules.─Blackness of outer parts; crawling on the skin as of insects.─Subcutaneous tingling.─General desquamation of epidermis.─Ulcers that turn black; skin withered and gangrenous.─Heat, with thirst and want of perspiration.─Sanguineous vesicles, which turn to gangrene, in the limbs.─Anthrax becoming gangrenous.

26. Sleep.─Strong inclination to sleep and coma.─Deep, lethargic sleep.─Sleeplessness, with agitation and dry heat.─Coma with delirium, starts, and fright.

27. Fever.─Violent shivering, followed by violent internal burning heat, with violent thirst.─Excessive coldness in back, abdomen, and limbs.─Coldness of surface of body; esp. of extremities and face; dryness.─Dry heat, with quick pulse, agitation, and sleeplessness.─Small, suppressed pulse (generally slow and contracted, sometimes intermittent, only slightly accelerated during the heat).─Pulse unchanged, even with the most violent attacks.─Cold perspiration.─Cold, clammy sweat all over, esp. above waist-line.

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

Spurred Rye; Ergot (A Fungus; a Nosode)

Adapted to women of thin, scrawny, feeble, cachetic appearance; irritable, nervous temperament; pale, sunken countenance. Very old, decrepit, feeble persons. Women of very lax muscular fibre; everything seems loose and open; no action; vessels flabby; passive haemorrhages, copious flow of thin, black, watery blood; the corpuscles are destroyed. Haemorrhagic diathesis; the slightest wound causes bleeding for weeks (Lach., Phos.); discharge of sanious liquid blood with a strong tendency to putrescence; tingling in the limbs and great debility, especially when the weakness is not caused by previous loss of fluids. Leucorrhoea; green, brown, offensive. Boils: small, painful with green contents, mature very slowly and heal in the same manner; very debilitating. Face: pale, pinched, ashy, sunken, hippocratic; drawn, with sunken eyes; blue rings around eyes. Unnatural, ravenous appetite; even with exhausting diarrhoea; craves acids, lemonade. Diarrhoea: profuse, watery, putrid, brown; discharged with great force (Gamb., Crot.); very exhausting; painless, involuntary; anus wide open (Apis, Phos.). Enuresis: of old people; urine pale, watery, or bloody; urine suppressed. Burning; in all parts of the body, as if sparks of fire were falling on the patient (Ars.). Gangrene; dry, senile, < from external heat. Large ecchymosis; blood blisters; often commencement of gangrene. Collapse in cholera diseases; skin cold, yet cannot bear to be covered (Camph.). The skin feels cold to the touch, yet the patient cannot tolerate covering; icy coldness of extremeties. Menses: irregular; copious, dark, fluid; with pressing, labor-like pains in abdomen; continuous discharge of watery blood until next period. Threatened abortion especially at third month (Sab.); prolonged, bearing down, forcing pains. During labor: pains irregular; too weak; feeble or ceasing; everything seems loose and open but no expulsive action; fainting. After pains: too long; too painful; hour-glass contraction. Suppression of milk; in thin, scrawny, exhausted women; the breasts do not properly fill. Pulse small, rapid, contracted and often intermittent.

Relations. - Compare: Cinnmon in post-partum haemorrhage; it increases labor-pains, controls profuse or dangerous flooding, is always safe, while Ergot is always dangerous. Similar: to, Arsenicum, but cold and heat are opposite. Resembles Colchicum in cholera morbus.

Aggravation. - Heat; warmth from covering, of all affected parts; in all diseases worse from heat.

Amelioration. - In the cold air; getting cold; uncovering affected parts; rubbing.

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Passive haemorrhage, everything open and loose, no action, in thin, scrawny, cachectic women.

Great coldness (objective) of the surface, yet the patient cannot bear to be covered.

Numbness, crawling and paralysis; formication as of mice creeping there, all parts of body.

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Secale cornutum is a remedy capable of great good, but is perhaps, as much misused as Quinine. Its power to contract the uterus is undoubted, and for this reason it is often given when other remedies would do better. It has power to control haemorrhages, that few other remedies, if any, can surpass. It is said to do this by contracting the capillaries. But we must remember that other remedies control haemorrhages, and whether they do it by contracting the capillaries, by their action upon the blood itself or other specific action, makes no difference, so long as they control it. Some physicians are always giving Ergot in post partum haemorrhages on this contracted theory, without ever thinking of anything else.

They always give it in material doses to get, as they term it, the physiological effect. I have never, in a practice of thirty-five years, used it in this way, but have always been able to control such haemorrhages. Secale is not often indicated in active post-partum haemorrhages. If there is a tendency to passive haemorrhage, everything open and loose, no action, in thin, scrawny, cachectic women (muscles flabby), there is no remedy like it, and the potencies are much better than the tincture or wine of Ergot in massive doses. This is also true in menorrhagias and metrorrhagias unconnected with pregnancy. The blood is dark, liquid and flowing worse on the slightest motion.

The constitution, temperament and age of the patient are of great importance, for it is particularly adapted to feeble, thin, scrawny, cachectic women of lax muscular fibre, subject to passive haemorrhages from all outlets of the body; also old, decrepit persons.

This remedy (Secale) is often abused on account of its power to produce muscular contractions of the womb. Now in regard to this as with haemorrhages, it is capable of doing all that it ought to be called upon to do, in the potencies.

I fully agree with Cowperthwaite, who says: "To give it in parturition to hasten delivery, as is the practice of the old school, is simply inexcusable." on the other hand, I agree with Dr. H. N. Guernsey, "that it is useful when labor pains are weak, suppressed or distressing, in weak, cachectic women; in the 200th dilution", and have verified it beyond question.

The practice of giving the fluid extract in such cases, as is done by some physicians calling themselves homoeopathic, ought to be sufficient cause for expelling them from a homoeopathic society. It seems to me to be confession of either inexcusable laziness or ignorance.

We have a long list of remedies of undoubted value for weak labor pains with specific indications for their use, and when so indicated they are more efficacious and less dangerous than Secale in massive doses of fluid extract with no other indications than uncontracted uterus or weak pains. The men who prate learnedly of getting the physiological effects of Secale in massive doses had better ask themselves if the same result gotten with the potentized remedy homoeopathically applied, is not just as much in accordance with the physiological law, and much more scientific from a homoeopathic standpoint. Weak pains remedied by the indicated homoeopathic drug bring on natural labor, while large doses for the same purpose of an unindicated one do not and never can produce natural labor. It is nothing more or less than drug poisoning.

Here is one symptom of Secale that is of inestimable value: "Great coldness (objective) of the surface yet the patient cannot bear to be covered." This is oftenest found in cholera and cholera infantum; but it is also found in senile gangrene.

The feet and toes may be objectively as cold as an iron wedge, but the patient is distressed beyond endurance by having them covered. I saw one marked case of this kind. All the toes were attacked with dry gangrene. A few doses of Secale (high) afforded great relief, and checked the progress of the disease for a long time.

Camphora has the same symptom in a marked degree in choleraic disease. Camphora seems to be most efficacious for the first stage or early collapse in the course of the disease, before the discharges have become offensive, putrid or dark colored. Secale has burning in the feet (Sulphur) and cramps in the calves (Sulphur).

If, however, we should prescribe on this alone it would make no difference which we prescribed, but they are very unlike in their entirety. Sulphur does not have the degree of collapse of Secale, nor the icy coldness of surface with subjective burning. So we see the folly of one symptom prescribing after all.

We must have the keynote symptom, of course, but it must harmonize with the rest of the case. Secale has "burning of all parts of the body, as if sparks were falling on them". It also has numbness, crawling and paralysis of the extremities. This is due to its action on the spinal chord. In addition to the coldness of the skin already noticed, we must state that the skin looks dry, wrinkled and is insensible often, or there may be much formication under, as if mice were creeping there.