Homeopathic Materia Medica

Lectures on Homoeopathic Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent

Pains: Spigelia is especially known by its pains.

It is indicated in persons who are debilitated from taking cold and who have become rheumatic, run down, victims of pain.

Hardly a nerve in the body escapes; shooting, burning, tearing, neuralgic pains; they are most marked about the eyes and jaws, neck, face, teeth, shoulders, burning like hot needles through the face and neck in any direction, stitching, tearing, worse from motion, from doing anything, even thinking, mental exertion, worse from eating.

Pains in the neck and shoulders are better from heat; those about the eyes are better from cold. Shooting, tearing pains in the extremities like hot wires.

Sometimes the pains are worse from lying down, but most commonly better from keeping still; worse from light, eating, motion, jarring; so sore in the painful region that any gentle exercise like going up or down stairs, or riding in a carriage that jar, makes the pain unbearable.

The Spigelia patient is sensitive to cold, to atmospheric changes, he is a rheumatic patient, but the nerves a-re attacked by neuralgia.

Eyes: Violent pains about the eyes.

Routine practice limits the use of the remedy to this region. Worse from hard pressure though sometimes better from it, if gentle and prolonged, firm pressure, but any movement of the pressing hand aggravates. The part is turgesced and inflamed. Eyes red and engorged.

Chest: Neuralgic affections of the muscles of the chest.

Many of the Spigelia pains in the chest are attributed to the heart, but there is intercostal neuralgia; tearing pains shooting into the shoulders and neck, especially the left side and down the arm. Pains shooting hither and thither.

Irregularity of the heart. Painful complaints associated with valvular troubles, especially growing out of rheumatism. Pericarditis and endocarditis of rheumatic character. Thrusting pains in the chest like a knife, in the eye like a knife.

Mind: This remedy needs further proving, its mental symptoms are scarcely known.

"Weak memory; disinclination to work; restless and anxious, solicitude about the future; gloomy, suicidal mood; afraid of pointed things, pins, etc.; easily irritated or offended."

This is all that is thought worthy of admission into the Guiding Symptoms, showing that the mental state has not been well brought out.

Many complaints are manifested in the morning; tired in the morning and full of tearing pains.

Old anemic subjects where there has been a transfer of the complaints to the nerves; broken down, pallid, nervous, with neuralgia, palpitation, irregular pulse. Vertigo on rising; gets up with violent pains and dizziness. So nervous that she must "fly.," full of excitement, cannot keep still, cannot keep control of herself.

Head: Pulsating and stitching in the head; sometimes better lying with the head high; worse from stooping, motion, and from noise.

Sometimes better from washing in cold water when the pain is about the eyes and head, but worse after washing; better while the cold water is applied. With these headaches and neuralgias there is stiff neck and shoulders, an apparent stiffness in that he cannot move on account of pain.

He sits in a chair as if transfixed, is aggravated from noise, light, from seeing things move in the room, which he must follow with his eyes.

"Fine burning, tearing pains in the brain."

It seems to be in the brain, but is more likely in the nerves of the scalp.

"Violent pain in the left parietal bone on motion or walking or making a misstep; toward evening-violent pressure and pressing outward in the forehead, worse from stooping, worse from pressure with the hand; tensive tearing pain in the forehead, especially beneath the frontal eminence, extending towards orbitis."

Notice the intensity of the pains. Burrowing, tearing pain in the occiput, in the left side of the vertex and forehead, worse from motion, from loud noise, and when he speaks loudly or even on opening the mouth slightly; better when lying down.

Pressive pain in the right side of the forehead, involving the right eye, in the morning in bed, but still more after rising; pain deeply seated, unaffected by pressure, very acute on motion, on suddenly turning the head, the brain seemed to be loose; worse from every joy, step, or straining at stool.

When moving the muscles of the face, there is a sensation as if the head would burst. Sensation as if a band were about the head. Neuralgic pain settles in and above the left eye, or below it, from cold in damp, rainy weather; hyperesthesia of the filaments of the fifth pair.

On the pain first beginning there is not so much hyperesthesia, but as it goes on this increases and the eye becomes congested. I have seen the pains so severe that they produced perfect prostration, cold sweat, vomiting.

The Hepar patient is so sensitive to pain that he becomes unconscious; faints with the pain. Cham. feels pain with such intensity that he gives way to violent frenzy, irritability, and outbursts of anger.

The Spigelia patient suffers intensely and the pain leaves its mark, the part becomes red and inflamed and sensitive. The head pains are worse from warmth; better temporarily from cold; the pains in other regions are the reverse.

The Phos. head and stomach symptoms are better from cold; the chest and body are better from warmth. In Ars. the head is often better by washing in cold water, while the patient himself is sensitive to the cold and wants warmth in the rest of his complaints.

Eyes again: Spigelia is full of visual symptoms; visual symptoms bring on complaints; at times he can do nothing but look straight ahead, for he has vertigo even when there is no pain, from looking downwards, every, thing goes round in a whirl.

Such a state is common to many people when they look down from a height, but Spigelia has it from looking down along his nose, so he sits and looks straight ahead.

Esophoria; exophoria disturbances in accommodation all sorts of tiny spasmodic conditions it is most difficult to fit glasses no settled focus, no fixed vision. Spigelia has from a mere neuralgic state what Ruta has from eye strain. Latent errors of vision.

Eyes that are always changing need a remedy. Stabbing pains in and around the eye, often radiating in every direction from one point. Eye-ball sensitive to touch. Eyes worse when thinking about them. Worse at night. Intolerable, pressing pain, worse on turning the eye, dizzy on attempting to move the eyes, must turn the whole head to see.

Pain radiates to the frontal sinuses and head. Sensation as if the eye were too large for its orbit. I remember a patient who had been traveling about from oculist to oculist, who had many visual troubles and no glasses would suit.

She had one sharp, stinging pain over the left eye day and night and she could only sleep when worn out. Lac fel. cured. Constant, fine, stinging pain over left eye was brought out by the provers of cat's milk.

This medicine has cured a pterygium, probably a false pterygium, that came from violent neuralgia, prolonged and lasting for months.

Chest: Stitching pains in the chest, worse from the least movement, breathing, sensation of tearing in the chest; trembling feeling in the chest when moving the arms or from any movement.

Can lie only on the right side with the head high. Rheumatic troubles especially in the left side of the chest. Feeling as if the heart were compressed with a hand. Purring feeling over the region of the heart, wave-like motion not synchronous with the pulse.

Waving palpitation not synchronous with the pulse. Trembling of the carotids. Acute pericarditis with anxiety and weight in the praecordium. These troubles following a rheumatic attack, at its close or many months after the fever has subsided. Spigelia is seldom indicated in rheumatism of the heart in phlegmatic persons who do not feel intensely.

When a rheumatic affection attacks the venous side of the heart, and there is a sense of stuffiness, of fullness through the whole body, limbs swollen, but do not pit on pressure, face mottled, it is a serious case and may end in Bright’s disease and death.

A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke

Spigelia anthelmia. Demerara Pink-root. N. O. Loganiaceae. Tincture of dried herb.

Clinical.─Adenoids. Amaurosis. Angina pectoris. Ciliary neuralgia. Cold. Constipation. Depression of spirits. Diaphragm, stitches in. Exophthalmic goitre. Eyes, pains in. Gastric catarrh. Glaucoma. Headache. Heart, affections of. Hernia, inguinal. Iritis. Jaw-joint, pain in. Neuralgia. Otalgia. Post-nasal catarrh. Prostatorrhoea. Pterygium. Rectum, cancer of. Rheumatism. Scarlatina. Sigmoid flexure, cancer of. Stammering. Strabismus. Tinnitus. Tobacco habit. Toothache. Worms.

Characteristics.─Spigelia anthelmia is a common weed in South America.: S. Marylandica, "Pink-root" or "Worm-grass," is a native of the Southern States of North America. Spigel. anth. is an acro-narcotic. It was known in Europe in Hahnemann's time as an anthelmintic, this property of the drug having been learned from the negroes of the Antilles. Hahnemann's proving (M. M. P.) revealed many other virtues. He says of the plant that it has this peculiarity: the primary action of a single unrepeated dose usually increases somewhat daily during the first seven to ten days, so that pure experiments with it should be conducted with caution seeing that 60, 80, to 100 drops of the tincture produce violent effects even in robust persons. Violence is a note of the Spigelia action. The pains are intense, and it produces pains in all parts. It is a neuralgia remedy par excellence. I was once written to by a patient in the country, and the only definite points that I could make out of the case were that there was neuralgia and that it affected the left side. I ordered Spi., and it speedily cured. Spi. is more left-sided than right, but by no means exclusively left, sided. The pains are burning, jerking, tearing, pressing and stitching; they radiate and extend to other parts; are < by noise, jar, movement; change of weather─especially stormy weather. Head, eyes, face, teeth, and heart are the principal seats of Spi. action. Hochecker (H. R., x. 147) relates the case of Miss O., 27, blonde, tall, robust, who had neuralgia for several weeks, without traceable cause. Pains came suddenly, twitching and tearing of left side of face, now in ear, then in lower jaw, and were particularly < by mastication. A peculiarity was that whenever the pains were about to commence a diarrhoea set in. A single powder of Spi. 6 cured. Hochecker also cured with Spi. 3, 6, 10, and 20 a case of tic-douloureux of right side of fifteen months' duration. In this case each lower attenuation after first relieving caused an aggravation. That was why the attenuations were successively raised. Spi. 20 completed the cure. This patient had dark hair and dark complexion. She attributed her trouble to taking cold in a draught when heated by dancing. Sensitiveness to cold, to wet and stormy weather, is one of the notes of Spi. The left-sidedness of Spi. is shown in its affinity for the heart. Sometimes the heart, eyes, and head are affected together. A case is quoted in A. H. (xxii. 417) in which there were darting and aching pains in head, nose, and eyes, and similar pains about the heart with slow, irregular action, but no murmur. Vertigo on stooping and heat of head. Sudden pains at bottom of back. The pains were < night and morning and in damp weather. In one prover the accustomed evening smoke caused violent toothache. I cured with Spi. a case of cardiac neuralgia caused by tobacco. I have frequently seen cardiac murmurs appearing in acute rheumatism disappear under Spi. In the eye, neuralgias, inflammation, amaurotic conditions, glaucoma presenting the symptoms of Spi. have been cured with it. The pains of Spi. are largely out-pressing, and proceed from within outward and below upward. A migraine comes from occiput and settles in or over left eye. In the eyes themselves there are intolerable pressive pains < on motion; but there are also stabbing pains through eye backwards into brain. The combination of heart and eye symptoms marks Spi. as the remedy in many cases of exophthalmic goitre. The anthelmintic properties of Spi. must not be lost sight of by homeopaths. It has the cardiac symptoms of helminthiasis: itching of anus and nose, colic, and borborygmus. Hering gives this case: "Helminthiasis: dilated pupils; strabismus; putrid smell from mouth, itching of nose, griping pain in belly; throat inflamed, swallows often, pale redness in throat and swelling of mucous membrane; palpitation." Masses of lumbrici have been expelled and also threadworms. Fetid breath and fetid flatus are marked features of Spi. There is both constipation and diarrhoea. I have found it especially useful in heart cases where constipation has been a troublesome complication. The bodily sensitiveness of Spi. is paralleled by the mental irritability. But the most peculiar mental symptom is "fear of pointed things as pins, etc." Meninger (A. H., xx. 282) had a severe case of nausea of pregnancy which he cured with Spi. The only leading symptom in the case was this: She was afraid of pointed things and asked her husband to take away a fork, crochet-needle, etc. (Sil. has a somewhat similar symptom, but the Sil. patient hunts for pins although afraid of them.) Spi. corresponds to rheumatism as well as to heart affections the consequence of rheumatism. A patient whom I successfully treated for a serious heart affection with Spi. 3 told me that under the treatment he had lost a pain in the right knee which he had had for eighteen months, and which he had not mentioned to me at first. The pain was as if dislocated; unable to rise from kneeling; cannot find an easy position, often for hours at night. Peculiar Sensations of Spi. are: As if he would fall. As if intoxicated. As if head would burst. As of a band around head. As if head tightly bound. As if electric sparks in temples. Brain as if loose. As if nerves being cut with a fine instrument in forehead and temple. As if eye would be pushed out of head. As if hairs or feathers on lashes. Upper lids as if paralysed. Eyeballs as if too large. As if sand in eyes. As if needles thrust into eyeball. As if eye would be pressed out of socket. As if eye would fly into pieces. As if eye were being pulled forward and backward. Pain in eye as if it would drive him crazy. As if ear loosely stopped or a thick mist before it. As if back of nose were lightly touched by hair, or as if a gentle wind were blowing across it. Face feels as if it had been scorched. As if all muscles of left side of face from head to neck and left axilla were pierced with red-hot needles. Teeth as if too long. As if left side of lower jaw would be torn out of its joint. Sensation resembling purring of cat. As of a worm rising in throat. As of a half fluid body ascending in throat. As of a hard lump in throat. As if abdomen would burst. As if all intestines would be constricted. Suffocating as if from a quantity of water poured into windpipe. Pulse as if a thread pulled through arteries. As if heart compressed or squeezed with a hand. As if heart being crushed. As if everything in chest were too short, loose, and wabbling about. As if something tearing in chest. In left scapula sensation as though blood dripping through a valve. Spi. is Suited to: Anaemic, debilitated subjects, of rheumatic diathesis; to scrofulous children afflicted with ascarides and lumbrici; to persons with light hair; pale, thin, bloated, weak; with wrinkled, yellow, earthy skin. The body is painfully sensitive to touch, the part touched feels chilly; touch sends a shudder through the whole frame. Spi. is a sun remedy: headache beginning at sunrise, at its height at noon, declining to sunset. In chest affections there are stitching pains synchronous with the pulse. Stammering: repeats first syllable three or four times; with abdominal ailments; with helminthiasis. The symptoms are < by touch. Contact and pressure of clothes is unbearable. (Pressure > neuralgia.) < jarring; hard step. Rest >. Motion <. Moving, shaking head <. Moving eyes <. Moves very carefully. Lying with head high; or on right side >. < Rising; stooping; bending forward. > Whilst eating, < immediately after. Warmth >; (< headache). Open air = pain in eyes; > headache. < Slightest draught; cold, damp, rainy, stormy weather; cold air; cold washing; (cold application > neuralgia temporarily). < Morning on waking. Pain increases and declines with sun. < (Also sometimes >) from tobacco. Opening mouth < headache.

Relations.─Antidoted by: Camph., Aur. (restlessness in limbs); Cocul., Puls. Antidote to: Merc., Colch. (heart). Compatible: Aco. (endocarditis); Ars., Dig., K. ca., Zn. (heart); Iris (prosopalgia); Arn. (carbuncle). Compare: Botan. Nux, Ign., Curar. Pains; left eye, Aco. Neuralgia in left eye, Ther. Headaches, coming and going with sun, Na. m., Sang., Tab. Neuralgia, Act. r. (Act. r. < right). Catarrhs, Puls. Eye pains, Bell. (Bell. more right-sided; more congestion). Heart pains; white stools, Dig. Ciliary neuralgia, Ced., Mez. (mercurial), Thuj. (pains go up and backwards). Stitches in heart, Hep., Na. m., K. ca., Ars., Caust. Headache begins occiput and goes to left eye (Sang. to right; Sil. to both). Tic-douloureux, Thu., Coccin. Aversion to be washed, Ant. c., Clem., Hep., Rhus, Sep., Sul. Faintness connected with stool, Ap., Nux m., Pul., Ver. (with scanty stool, Crot. t., Dulc., Ox. ac., Pet., Sars., Sul.). Neuralgia with pallor (with redness, Bell.). Nausea at sight of food, Colch., Lyc., Mosch., Ph. ac., Saba. Worms, Saba., Cin., Teuc., Scirrh., Stn. < Moving head, Sol. n. Coughing, loud speech = head pains, Bry., Caps., Nat. m., Sul. Illusions of vision, Cycl. (Cycl. when with any trouble, headache, sick stomach, etc., one always sees countless stars), < Tight clothing, Lach. Contraction of fingers, Gels., Guaiac. Sensitiveness to touch, K. ca. As if eyes too large, Act. r., Comoc. Sensation of band round heart, Cact., Carbl. ac., Sul. Post-nasal catarrh, offensive, causing choking at night, Hdrast. Scirrhus of sigmoid flexure or rectum, atrocious, unbearable pain, Alumen. Dyspnoea, must lie on right side with head high, Cact., Spo. Toothache from tobacco, Plant. Teste puts Spi. in his Arn. group; he considered it a "chronic" of Arn.

Causation.─Chill. Tobacco.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Sadness and discouragement.─Agitation and anxiety, with restless care concerning the future.─Timidity.─Afraid of pointed things, pins, etc.─Sits as if lost in thought, stares at a single point.─Moroseness, to the extent of suicidal mania.─Great dejection in evening; he could have killed himself (with chilliness of body).─Weakness of memory.─Absence of ideas.─Difficulty of thinking.─Unfitness for intellectual labour.

2. Head.─Head confused, as from intoxication or dizziness.─Giddiness when looking downwards.─Vertigo, to such an extent as to fall down when walking, standing, or looking down.─Vertigo, with nausea.─Headache, on shaking head, with vertigo, and sensation of heaviness.─Neuralgic pains flying from one part to another.─Headache beginning in cerebellum, morning, spreading over l. side of head, causing violent and pulsating pain in t. temple and over l. eye, with stitches in left eye; returning periodically. Painfulness of cerebellum with stiffness of neck.─Stitches in l. side of head and out of l. eye.─Headache like a heaviness; on drawing the facial muscles it seems as though the skull would burst upward and asunder.─Fine burrowing-tearing pains in brain, esp. violent in l. parietal bone; < on false step.─Sharp shaking just behind and above r. frontal eminence.─Pressive pain in r. side of head involving r. eye, morning in bed, < after rising; pain deeply seated, unaffected by pressure, very acute on motion; on suddenly turning head brain seemed loose; < every jar, step, even straining at stool.─Stitches like electric sparks in head.─Pains in head < by slightest movement, by least noise, and by opening mouth.─Headaches are < from least noise; > when lying with head high, and from washing head with cold water.─Painful tenderness of the occiput, with sensation of numbness and stiffness in nape of neck.─Periodical headaches.─Pressing asunder in head, esp. in r. temple; < from motion and opening mouth; > while at rest.─Pressure in head, compressive or expansive, < by stooping.─Sensation of a tight band around head.─Pain, as if head about to burst, when coughing and speaking loud.─Tearing, digging, or boring headache from within to without, in forehead, vertex, or cerebellum, < during movement.─Sensation of soreness in forehead and vertex.─Tearing in forehead in paroxysms, with fixed eyes.─Pulsative lancinations in forehead, with noise as of hammering before the ears.─Commotions and blows in head, while walking in open air.─Shaking in brain at every step, and at every movement of head.─Burning pain in exterior of forehead and temples as far as eyes.─Tension in scalp.─Painful tenderness of scalp when touched; < when moving the scalp.─Head feels too large.

3. Eyes.─Neuralgia of eyes, esp. where there is great soreness, and can scarcely bear a touch; affections of the eyeball; eyelids; optic nerve; dilated pupils; ocular illusions─sees strange things, fiery, luminous rays, sparks, etc.─On shutting eyes a sea of fire appears.─Illusion as if hairs or feathers on lashes; < on moving them.─Impending amaurosis.─Pains in eyes, deeply seated in sockets.─Aching (pressure) in the eyeballs, esp. when turning them.─Pains in the eyes during movement, as if eyeballs were too large.─Digging, boring, and shootings in eyes, penetrating into head, sometimes with pain, which drives to despair.─Pains as if needles thrust into r. eyeball.─Movement of eyes and muscles of face < the pains.─Tingling in eyes.─Itching in r. eyeball, returning after rubbing.─Dry heat and burning sensation in eyes, which forces them to close.─Redness of sclerotica, with injection of blood-vessels.─Inflammation of eyes and of cornea.─Inflammation and ulceration of lids, with smarting pain as from excoriation.─Eyes confused and dull.─Profuse lachrymation.─Acrid, smarting tears.─Great sensitiveness of eyes to light.─Hanging down of lids as from paralysis.─Sensation as of a hard substance under r. upper lid, > by rubbing.─Violent burrowing stitch in middle of eye and in inner canthus that does not prevent vision, but presses upper lid down.─Upper lids feel hard and immovable.─Pain as if l. orbit were pressed from above downward.─Tendency to wink.─Weakness of eyes; in whatever direction they are turned they remain.─Difficulty in raising the eyelids, with painful sensation of stiffness.─Contraction and involuntary movement of eyes.─Squint; convergent.─"A dose of Spigel. always produced squint in us when children" (American lady's testimony.─R. T. C.).─Strabismus whether from worms or not (Macfarlan).─Pupils dilated.─Loss (momentary suspension) of sight.─Presbyopia.

4. Ears.─Earache with an ichorous, scalding discharge; hearing very sensitive; noise in the ear as of something fluttering.─Pain in margin of l. concha.─Drawing in l. antitragus.─Itching in r. concha.─Pressive pains in r. ear.─Otalgia, with pressive, troublesome pain, as if there were a plug in ear.─Jerking tearing in ears.─Squeezing, itching, and burning sensation in external ear.─Itching in r. vesicle.─Stoppage of ears, with or without dysecoia.─Periodical deafness.─Sensation of distant ringing in ears, with sensation as if the ear were loosely stopped or a thick mist were in front of it.─Roaring, buzzing, and pulsation in ears.─Noise of hammering before ears.

5. Nose.─Itching in nose, with tickling.─Tickling on back of nose, as if lightly touched by hairs, or as if a gentle wind were blowing across it.─Tingling, shooting, boring, smarting and itching in nose.─Herpetic eruption on nose with pain, as from excoriation.─Stoppage and dryness of anterior nose, with copious discharge of whitish and yellowish mucus from posterior nares.─Frequent sneezing; discharge of bloody mucus.─Mucus at one time white, at another time yellow, is discharged from nose; at same time much mucus is discharged from mouth.─Fluent coryza, which recurs frequently, esp. after slightest chill.

6. Face.─Face pale and wan, with yellow circles round eyes.─Redness of face; perspiration on face.─Cheeks and lips at one time a deep red, at another time pale.─Burning in r. side of upper lip.─Bloatedness of face, esp. after sleeping.─Facial muscles seem distorted and swollen, morning on rising.─Prosopalgia (mostly l.─sided).─Jerking tearings, burning sensation, and aching in region of Zygomatic process; or violent pains, which cannot bear the slightest touch or least movement, with shining swelling of side affected.─Periodical neuralgia; from morning until sunset; < at noon; < from motion or noise.─Semilateral pains in face, with praecordial anxiety and great agitation.─Exostosis of the temporal part of the orbit.─Lips tense and burning.─Small blackish pimples on upper lip.─Pressive pain in angle of lower jaw, as if in the jaw or in the teeth, proceeding from the ear.─Tearing in lower jaw, radiating to ear and about it as far as nape; could not move head without pain.─Pain as if r. side of lower jaw would be torn out of its joint, only when chewing.

7. Teeth.─Toothache (in evening) after customary smoke in evening.─Toothache > by tobacco smoke.─Pain, like pressing asunder, in the teeth, immediately after a meal, or at night, which does not permit continued lying down.─Toothache so that he was unable to sleep at night; it drove him out of bed; not during day, except just after eating, not while eating.─Toothache > by warmth of bed.─Toothache like a pressure outward; < lying on r. side.─Jerking toothache, or with pulsative tearings, esp. in carious teeth, < by cold water after eating or by contact with the open air; > whilst eating and when lying down.─Toothache with prosopalgia, paleness and bloatedness of face, yellowish circles round eyes, palpitation of heart, shivering and agitation.

8. Mouth.─Offensive exhalation from the mouth, noticed only by others.─(Stinging) lancinating dryness in mouth on waking in morning.─Much white, frothy saliva in mouth.─White or yellow mucus in mouth and palate.─Tongue cracked.─Vesicles, with burning pain, on tongue and palate.─Took away the pain of cancer of tongue (Bayes, H. W., xviii. 3).

9. Throat.─Sore throat, with lancinations and swelling in palate.─Discharge of mucus from fauces all day, most from posterior nares.─Cervical glands swollen.

10. Appetite.─Putrid, fetid taste.─Anorexia, with violent thirst.─Repugnance to tobacco-smoke and snuff.─Dislike to coffee.─Bulimy, sometimes with nausea and thirst.

11. Stomach.─Risings after every meal.─Sour risings.─Nausea (in the morning) when fasting, with a sensation as if something were ascending from stomach into throat.─Accumulation of mucus in the stomach.─Pressure in stomach and scrobiculus as from a heavy body (as from a hard lump).─Lancinations in pit of stomach and diaphragm, sometimes with obstructed respiration.─Dull stitches, in pit of stomach, < from inspiration, with oppression of the chest.─Inability to bear tight clothing round scrobiculus; the least contact causes anguish, with redness and heat of face, and sensation as if something were torn away in chest.

12. Abdomen.─Griping in abdomen, as if intestines constricted, with anxiety and difficult breathing.─Abdomen hard, and painfully tight.─Stitches in region of diaphragm, l. side, arresting breathing.─Pressure in umbilical region, as by a hard body.─Colic, with pinching pains, cuttings (from worms) in the umbilical region, with shivering, diarrhoea, and copious secretion of urine.─Lancinations (stitches) in the abdomen.─Tensive pain in the groins when touched.─Grumbling and borborygmi in the abdomen.─Painful pressure in lower abdomen, as if it would burst, esp. in evening before a soft stool; sometimes > after.─Expulsion of fetid flatus.

13. Stool and Anus.─Frequent, urgent, and ineffectual want to evacuate.─Soft, liquid faeces.─White stools daily.─Nodular stool with violent pressure.─Faints during stool.─Hard, difficult evacuations, with much mucus.─Discharge (of large lumps) of mucus from anus, without evacuation.─Liquid diarrhoea of faecal matter and of mucus.─Diarrhoea, with pinchings in abdomen and coldness in body.─Discharge of faeces with worms.─Ejection of lumbrici and ascarides from rectum.─Itching and sensation as if something were creeping in rectum and anus.─Boring stitches in perinaeum.─(Scirrhus of sigmoid or rectum, atrocious, unbearable pains.─H. C. Allen).

14. Urinary Organs.─Urine, with whitish sediment.─Frequent want to urinate, with profuse emission, even at night.─Sudden and involuntary dribbling of urine, with burning sensation in anterior part of urethra.─Discharge of prostatic fluid from the urethra.

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Tingling round glans penis.─Semilateral swelling of glans.─Erections, with lascivious ideas, without voluptuous excitement.─(Discharge of prostatic fluid.).─Itching stitch in r. testicle and penis, from behind forward.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Catarrh, with hoarseness, continual discharge of mucus from nose, dry heat without thirst, prominent eyes, distressing headache, and disposition to weep.─Nocturnal catarrh, with cough.─Cough in open air, with pain in chest as from excoriation.─Dry cough, violent and hollow, caused by irritation low down in trachea, with respiration obstructed, even to suffocation.─Short, dry cough causing soreness of chest.─Shortness of breath, esp. when talking, with anxiety and redness of cheeks and lips.─Dyspnoea when moving in bed; can only lie on r. side; or with the head very high.─Danger of suffocation on least movement, and esp. on raising arms.

18. Chest.─Aching at the chest, with painful oppression.─Contraction of chest, with anguish and obstructed respiration.─Stitches in diaphragm with dyspnoea.─Noise in the chest like that made by a spinning-wheel, esp. in region of heart.─Pressure, burning or incisive sensation, pain, as from ulceration and tearing in chest, esp. on lifting arms.─Cutting tearing beneath l. nipple, extending to region of scapulae and upper arm, < during inspiration and deep breathing.─Sensation of trembling in thorax, < by moving arms.─Spasmodic sensation in chest, proceeding from pit of stomach and causing choking.─Tensive lancinations in chest, esp. when drawing breath.

19. Heart.─Violent palpitation of heart, perceptible to sight and hearing, often with anxious oppression of chest, < by curving chest forwards and by sitting down.─Noise in chest, like that made by a spinning-wheel, esp. in region of heart.─Sudden attack of suffocation, with palpitation of heart and anguish.─Heavy aching in region of apex, with feeling as if a dull-pointed knife were slowly driven through it.─(Organic diseases of the heart; rubbing, bellows sounds.).─Sensation in heart as if squeezed with hand; as if crushed.─Lancinations in region of heart.─Stitches in heart, sometimes synchronous with the pulse.─Sensation of trembling in heart.─The beatings of the heart do not correspond with those of the pulse.─Pulse weak, irregular, trembling.─Undulating movement of the heart.─In affections of the heart, particularly if the whole l. side is sore from the affection, and possibly the eyes also from sympathy; purring of heart as of a cat; palpitation of the heart with anguish; trembling pulsation of the heart; sympathy of the chest with heart troubles.─(Visible pulsation of heart.─Violent, oppressive action of heart extending to top of head.─Tumultuous action of heart in acute rheumatism and other acute disorders.─R. T. C.)

20. Neck and Back.─Needle-like stitches in upper dorsal vertebrae; in r. scapula.─Sensation in l. scapula as though blood were dripping through a valve, a kind of bubbling.─Red pimples on neck, with pain as from excoriation when touched.─Hard and painful swelling of glands of the neck.─Pains in nape, < when still, > by motion.─Intermittent drawing in posterior cervical muscles and up to occiput.─Sticking pain in r. side of neck; on swallowing, pain in parotid gland.─Itching of anus and coccyx.─Pain in back as from a fracture, also during movement.─Bruised feeling in spine, even during rest.─Lancinations (stitches) in back, sometimes on drawing breath.

21. Limbs.─Fatigue.─Drawing, tearing, twitching pains in limbs and joints.─The limbs are affected mostly when walking.

22. Upper Limbs.─Heaviness and trembling of arms.─Easy numbing of arms and hands.─Jerking of muscles of arms and forearms.─Violent lancinations and shocks in bend of elbow and joints of hands and fingers.─Spasmodic drawings and tearings in bones of hands. Hard nodosities in the palms, with burning itching.─Hands of a pale yellow colour.─Contraction of fingers.─Purulent pimples on fingers.

23. Lower Limbs.─Pain, as of a fracture, tension and shootings in thighs, almost exclusively, when walking, or during rapid movements.─Stitches in the joints of the legs and feet and in the thigh.─Violent lancinations in knee on bending it.─Painful stiffness in knee-joint.─Lancinating shocks in joints of feet.─Excrescences, like warts, on toes.

24. Generalities.─[Very violent neuralgia, followed by an extreme soreness; boring pains; pains as if parts were pushed or pressed asunder, or as if they would burst; sensation of extension in size; feeling as of a lump in the inner parts; darting pains in inner and outer parts; darting pain from within outward; in the joints; pains of a dragging or rooting character.─Affections in general of r. side of face and nose; stool with maw-worms (oxyuris vermicularis), discharge of urine too copious, sensitiveness of outer parts; aversion to washing; trembling pulse that can scarcely be counted.─< On stooping; when blowing nose; during expiration; after rising from a seat; from touching the parts affected; when walking in open air; from having worms.─> While taking an inspiration.─H. N. G.].─Arthritic, shooting, or tearing pains in the limbs.─Stinging pain in the limbs and principally in the joints.─Tearing in the vicinity of the joints, as if the bone were scraped.─Heaviness and soreness in the body when rising from a seat.─Sensitiveness of body to touch, with chilliness of the parts touched; or it sends a shudder through whole body.─Great weakness, esp. mornings.─Heaviness and sensation in limbs as if fractured.─Convulsions.─Lassitude, esp. after slight exercise, and in open air.─Syncope, esp. when making an effort to evacuate, or in a warm room.─Great sensitiveness to cold air, with sufferings from walking in open air.─Great liability to suffer from a chill.

25. Skin.─Pale, wrinkled skin of body.─Painful sensibility of entire skin when touched.─Painful glandular swellings.─Red pimples, with pain, as from excoriation, when touched.

26. Sleep.─Strong disposition to sleep by day, and also in morning or evening; but without sleeping until long after lying down.─Sleep at night, unrefreshing, agitated, with uneasiness in limbs.─Heavy, stupefying sleep.─Confused dreams, which cause him to awake wearied, and which he cannot remember.

27. Fever.─Pulse irregular, generally strong, but slow.─Trembling pulse.─Frequent shiverings, esp. in morning or during slight exercise.─Chill, frequently returning at the same hour in the morning.─Chill, alternating with heat or perspiration.─Chilliness on some part of the body, on others heat.─The chill extends from the chest.─Frequent heat, sometimes transient.─Heat, esp. in back.─Heat in face and on hands, with chill in back.─Thirst for beer during the heat (with flushes of heat at night).─At night putrid perspiration with heat at same time.─Clammy perspiration.─Cold perspiration.

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

Pinkroot (Loganiaceae)

Adapted to anaemic debilitated subjects of rheumatic diathesis; to scrofulous children afflicted with ascarides and lumbrici (Cina, Stan.). Persons with light hair; pale, thin, bloated, weak; wrinkled, yellow, earthy skin. Body painfully sensitive to touch; part touched feels chilly; touch sends shudder through the whole frame (Kali c.). Afraid of sharp, pointed things, pins, needles, etc. Rheumatic affections of heart (Kali, Led., Naja); systolic blowing at apex. Aneurism. Nervous headache; periodical, beginning in morning at base of brain, spreading over the head and locating in eye, orbit and temple of left side (right side, Sang., Sil.); pain, pulsating, violent, throbbing. Headache; at sunrise, at its height at noon, declines till sunset. (Nat. m., Tab.). Intolerable, pressive pain in eyeballs; could not turn the eyes without turning the whole body; worse, especially on making a false step. Sensation: as if eyes were too large for the orbits (Act., Com.); sensitve to touch; as if a band around head (Cac., Carb. ac., Sulph.). Copious offensive mucus from posterior nares, drops into throat, causing choking at night (Hydr.). Sharp, stabbing, sticking pains through eyeballs back into the head; from cold, damp, rainy weather. Prosopalgia: periodical, left-sided, orbit, eyes, malar bone, teeth; from morning until sunset; pain tearing, burning, cheek dark red; during cold, rainy weather; from tea. Toothache from tobacco smoking; > only on lying down and while eating (Plan.); worse from cold air and water; returns from thinking about it. Scirrhus of sigmoid or rectum, atrocious unbearable pain (Alumen). Dyspnoea: must lie on right side ro with head high (Cac., Spong.); pains in chest are stitching, needle-like. Chest affections with stitching pains synchronous with pulse, < from motion, < cold, wet weather. Palpitation: violent, visible and audible; from least motion; when bending forward; systolic blowing at apex. Stammering, repeats first syllable three or four times; with abdominal ailments; with helminthiasis.

Relations. - Compare: Acon., Ars., Cact., Dig. Kali c., Naja, Kal., Spong. in heart affections.

Aggravation. - From motion, noise, touch, turning the eyes; from every shaking, commotion, or concussion.

Amelioration. - Lying on right side with the head high (Ars., Cac., Spong.).

Leaders In Homoeopathic Therapeutics, Eugene Beauharnais Nash

Violent beating of the heart, shakes the chest; sometimes audible several inches away.

Left-sided neuralgias of head, face and eyes; pains increase and decrease with the rising and setting sun; watering of the eye, on affected side.

Modalities: < from motion, noise, inspiration, moving eyes, cold, damp, rainy weather; rising sun; > quiet; dry air, setting sun.

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In this we have another valuable, heart remedy. The pains in the heart in this remedy are as severe as those under Cactus and the action is more violent than under either Cactus or Digitalis. It is so violent as often to be visible to the eye through the clothes, shaking the whole chest, and the sounds are often audible several inches away. It is not only a very valuable remedy in acute attacks of the heart but in chronic valvular affections following the acute attack, where we have the loud blowing sounds and attacks of violent palpitation. I have seen the violent attacks of palpitation quickly relieved, and not only that, but the valvular troubles gradually and perfectly cured, under the action of this remedy. In these troubles the patient can often only lie on the right side (Phos., Nat. mur.), or with the head very high; least motion < (Naja). It is one of our best remedies for neuralgic affections of the head, face, and eyes.

The headaches are generally one-sided, beginning in the occiput and extending forward, and settling over the left eye (right, Sang. and Silicea). They are aggravated by the least noise or jar. They increase with the rising of the sun and decrease with its going down (Natrum mur., Tabacum), and the eye on the affected side often runs clear water. (Chelidon. maj., right side with water gushing out).

Spigelia is very useful in ciliary neuralgia, the pain being of the same character as the headaches. The pains are also stabbing, running through into the back of the head, or like Actaea, they press outward, as if the eyeballs were too large for the sockets (Comocladia).

In any or all of the above-named affections, for which Spigelia is so efficacious, the patient is made worse from motion, noise, inspiration or moving the eyes, and especially in cold, damp, rainy weather. It makes us think of Bryonia, Kalmia and Natrum mur., and Actaea (motion), Belladonna (noise), and China (touch, especially light touch). It is certainly a very valuable remedy, though not one, so far as known, of very wide range of action.