Comparison
Belladonna and others
[Dr. E.A. Farrington]
Apis vs belladonna
Belladonna is often mistaken for Apis in
laryngeal affections.
Apis has the more oedematous swelling, with
consequent dyspnoea.
Belladonna has more spasmodic constriction.
[A. Gaskin]
One of the most important things to decide when we are going into the
mental state of a remedy is whether we shall use this remedy in hysteria, in
the delirium of the
various phases of fever, or in insanity, and to ascertain this we turn
to that part of the proving which gives us the pace of the remedy.
If we want to understand the delirium of Bell. and Bry.,
to see which one would be suitable in a certain case, we turn to the febrile
action of the remedy and see what
the nature of that is; the pace tells us largely the kind of delirium,
if we don’t know from the delirium itself.
In Bell. is no continued fever, and as a remedy must in its very nature
be adapted to the very nature of the disease. (many injunctions written in our
books telling us to
give Bell. in the acute form of delirium in typhoid fever;
Bry. has just that condition; hence we will see
that Bry. is useful in such cases which present
symptoms similar to it; because the pace of the disease is similar to the pace
of Bry. which has a continued fever.
Bell. has intermittent and remittent fever, and hence the acute delirium
of Bell. is similar to the acute delirium of remittent fever.
Calad.: has a continued fever; it has no great amount
of fever in it, but it is a continued fever, there is coma and stupor from
fever, "delirium, unintelligible murmuring,",
mental prostration. This remedy is suitable in low, murmuring,
exhaustive cases of typhoid fever, cases that are running a very sluggish
course; not a very active delirium,
but muttering; a low form of semi-consciousness, very often coma or
stupefaction like.
Ph-ac.: a dazed
mind
Calc.: chronic
sore throats The throat appearance itself is not always sufficient to prescribe
on, but the complaints in the throat are those that come on in persons taking
cold
so frequently that the patient has not time to get over one before he
goes into another, and this engrafts upon him a chronic sore throat. It may in
the beginning be a Bell.
sore throat, which is quite likely, but before he gets over it he has
taken another cold. Remember that this is a part of the Calc. patient, that he
takes cold so easily, he takes cold from every draught, from every exposure,
and from damp weather. When getting over a Bell. sore throat — about the time
he thinks he is over it he takes a new cold. Perhaps it has been relieved two
or three times with Bell., and then it settles down into a chronic state, and
there are little red patches, perhaps little ulcers, in the throat.
This extends all over. It extends to the roof of the mouth, with a sore
tongue and a constant dry choking feeling in the pharynx, covering the tonsils
and extending up into
the posterior nares filling them with thick
yellow mucus.
Chronic inflammation. The uvula may be puffed, swollen. Parts swollen,
red, tumid," but in patches. The throat very painful on swallowing, dry,
choking feeling.
Bry.: eyes red
and congested, listless, does not want to move, to speak or to do anything,
because all of these things are motion, are efforts and they make him worse.
Bell.: this is also true in Bell.; it has all of this congestion and
pressure. mental symptoms and everything in connection are marked by activity.
Is violent, its fever most intense/much excitement. Remember Bry. slow, sluggish, passive and insidious in its approach
and progress
Brom.: process of inflammation is slow; they are not
that violent, rapid kind as in Bell. and Merc.
Hyos.: grading of this general type of insanity
should be compared with Stram. and Bell.
Stram.: delirium/insanity expressed in terms of
extreme violence.
Bell. Brom. Hyos.
run close together that something can be brought out by associating them
together.
Hyos.: its mental state it is well to realise that
it seldom has much fever in its insanity. It has a fever sometimes in the low
form, but when Hyos. is thought of in relation
to the febrile state the intensity of the heat would be in this order:
Bell. Stram. Hyos.
Bell. is very hot in its mental states, Stram.
is most violent and active, murderously violent, is moderately hot in its
fever, as a rule. Hyos. has a low fever, sometimes
none
at all, with insanity.
When one comes to take into consideration the violence of its delirium,
or the maniacal actions, then it changes the order.
The order as to violence of conduct would be: Stram. Bell. Hyos.
Even early in the disease Hell. lacks the wildness and acute delirium
found in Stram. Mand. Bell.
In Bell. and also in many of those medicines that have this nature of
cramping and constricting and contracting of circular fibres, there is
convulsive tendency.
Bell. violent congestion of the brain + will commonly be attended with
cramps in the extremities and convulsions of the muscles all over, or in parts.
Cact.: Not so under.
Psor.: Febrile state. Intermittent, bilious fever,
fever from a cold. The patient is so hot that the hand under the covers feels
as though in a steam bath and the sensation of
heat causes one to draw it back. It is not the dry heat of Bell. yet it
is as intense. It is a steam. He is covered with a boiling sweat in fevers.
Head and body hot, and hot air.
Op.: Head and body hot, and hot air.
And a violent congestion to the head, an apoplectic condition.
Cact.: violent congestion of the head found in Bell.
but with BELL we have the intense heat of the body, fever heat, not found in Cact., it has only a moderate fever. The heat is in the
upper part of the body, in the head and neck. Fullness of the neck; bloating of
the neck. Feels as if the head would expand from the pressure of blood in the
head, but without any great rise of temperature. It has fever, but it has these
without fever. But with Bell. when you have these pulsations, the patient is
immensely hot, and he burns all over. There is some burning in Cact., but not comparably with Bell.
Cic.: head hot and extremities cold, like Bell. in
its convulsions.
Cocc.: Extreme irritability of the nervous system.
The least noise or jar is unbearable. Bell. worse from ajar. As is Cocc. quite like Bell. Cocc. like
Bell. in sleeplessness and other general conditions.
Coff.: "Neuralgic toothache entirely relieved
by holding cold water in the mouth, returning as it becomes warm. Toothache
during the menstrual period. Complaints of anaemic children during dentition."
Those nervous, excitable children that talk to the mother and the nurse very
rapidly with brilliant eyes, red face, cannot go to sleep. It will quiet the
patient and actually favour the growth of the tooth in a painless manner.
That is the description of a nervous child with many nervous brain and
mental troubles. This child is extremely sensitive; it takes cold. The routine
prescriber gives Bell. to
a child who has hot head, hot face, and throbbing carotids, and when it
does not help he gives more Bell. and increases the size of his dose until the
child has a proving.
He makes a Bell. child out of it when Coff.
would have cured it. In most instances where Bell. is indicated the child is
sluggish and would like to sleep. With Coff. there is
excitement.
A feature of infancy is the following: Child may not have diarrhoea, may
even be constipated, but it lies in bed and rolls the head in sleep. Bell. and Apis. roll head. Apis.
lies on back with the head on its side. Chewing motion of the jaws;
sometimes a sucking; a grinding of the teeth in those who are old and have
teeth; rolling the head from side to
side; if you lift the eyelids you will find a strabismus. Provers
felt as if the eyes were drawn inward- Podo. has cured
such a strabismus in congestion of the brain following a suddenly suppressed
diarrhoea.
Children going into severe attacks of infantile fever may threaten
convulsions, the head is hot and the body is cold. Most physicians will think
of Bell. which has such cold extremities and such a hot head. Do not forget Arn. (child who seems to have an aversion to being touched
and scream out every time the mother takes hold of the leg or arm). Look into
the history a little and you will see that this is a soreness, and if you strip
the child you may observe dusky spots, which give an added indication of Arn.x
Hyos.; after recovering from these low forms of
disease there is quivering of the lids, and jerking of the lids, jerking of the
muscles of the eye so the eyeball is unsteady. It moves from little spasms of
the various muscles of the globe of the eye. All of these symptoms occur either
along with the fever, of afterwards. The child goes into convulsions, or has
periods of convulsions, where during the course of a week or ten days there
have been from 15 - 50 convulsions, and it may be that the convulsions have
been remedied with Bell. or Cupr-met. or any one of a
number of remedies, and afterwards these eye troubles, strabismus and
disturbance of the vision. "An object looked at jumps." The letters
jump, while reading.
After Acon. follow well Arn. and Bell.
Sometimes it is true it will appear to you that Acon.
is capable of coping with all there is in the disease. But there seems to be a
lingering something that holds on and such medicines as Arn.
and Bell. and Ip.x
And Bry. do have to come in to finish up the
attack - or sometimes Sulph. Very commonly Sil. So we have to study the relations of
medicines.
Bry. has < 15 h., Bell. will begin at 15 h. and
run on towards midnight, but Bry. will begin at 21 h.
and run on through the night.
Glon.: "Bad effects from having the hair
cut." Bell. is generally thought of for taking cold in the head from
having the hair cut.
"Bad effects from being exposed to the sun's rays." "Bad
effects from sunstroke."
You will find some deep seated brain troubles that will try your
patience. Some cases go slowly and gradually into unconsciousness; rolling of
the head for days; eyes lustreless; body emaciated, involuntary discharges of
faeces or urine in the bed; tongue dry and parched, so shrivelled that it looks
like leather, lips also; face withered and
each day looks older; paralysis of one hand or one foot, or it seems
that the whole muscular system is paralysed. Screaming out in pain, although
not so shrilly as in Apis.
A dose of Zinc-met. will sometimes
bring this patient back to life. In a few days after the remedy there will be a
jerking and a quivering in the parts that were motionless,
or its action will be shown in a copious sweat, much vomiting; sudden
arousing that is alarming, for it looks like a threatened sinking, but this is
the beginning of reaction. Now, for days and nights while this little one is
coming back to consciousness, the restoration of sensation in the parts is
accompanied with the tormenting formication,
tingling, prickling, creeping and crawling.
The mother and the father and the neighbours will want something done
for it, but if you antidote the case will return to where it was before. This
suffering is but the awakening to life. It will go on in this way for a week or
two and then will begin to show signs of falling back; it needs another dose of
Zinc-met. which will again be
followed by sweat, vomiting etc. You will see this in spinal meningitis.
The early stage will be that of congestion and Bell. palliate, but with
the onset of the symptoms enumerated above, Zinc-met. the only remedy that will
cure. The Bell. case
will have flushed face, hot head, rolling of the head, flashing eyes,
throbbing carotids. The Bry. case will be docile,
purple, stupid, sleepy, ameliorated by quiet.
The Hell. cases will
exhibit but little fever; cold extremities, tossing of the head, dilated
pupils, unconsciousness, can hardly be aroused;
rolling head from side to side, but when the reflexes are abolished
Zinc-met. comes in. After the relief from Gels., Bell. or Bry. give
Zinc-met. Rugged little fellows who hang on for weeks in this state, emaciating
and unconscious. You must take the
mother aside and inform her what will happen if the child returns to
consciousness. If you do not, you may be turned out of the house. A person
advanced in years cannot stand such an ordeal, but it is astonishing how the
little ones can endure the prolonged congestion and inflammation. After scarlet
fever and badly treated meningitis; tubercular meningitis. I have carried these
severe forms of brain disease through on PHOS which has a picture somewhat like
that of Zinc-met. There is no record of recovery from tubercular meningitis,
but a homoeopath can cure some of these cases, though it may take 2 - 3 months
to go down and come up out of it, with two or three relapses.
As a convulsive medicine Ip. is not well
enough known. Convulsions in pregnancy. Convulsions in whooping cough;
frightful spasms affecting the whole of the left side, followed by paralysis; clonic and tonic spasms of children and hysterical women.
Tetanus, rigidity of the body, with flushed redness of the face.
These are strong features of Ip., and they
have not been sufficiently dwelt upon, and the remedy is not sufficiently known
as having these states so prominently.
Bell. is more frequently spoken of in the books and in treatises on
spasms, yet Ip. is just as important a remedy to be
studied in relation to spasms and its action on the spine.
Stram.: In cerebral congestions the delirium subsides
into unconsciousness; the patient has the appearance of profound intoxication; pupils
dilated or contracted (in Bell. they are dilated)/useful in mania that has
existed for some time; attacks of mania coming on in paroxysms, appearing with
more or less suddenness so that a single attack would
look like Bell. but the history differentiates.
Bell. would be hardly more than a palliative in the first attack, and
the second exhibition of it would do nothing.
Fear of water: an other thing running through Hyos.
In insanity and in the delirium of fevers is a fear of water, fear of running
water. Of course, hydrophobia, which is named because of that symptom being a
striking feature, has fear of water, but some remedies also have that fear of
water. "Anxiety on hearing running water. A fear of water."
Runs through Bell. Hyos., Canth. and Lyss.
Stram. has the fear of anything that might look like
water, shining objects, fire, looking glass. Fear of things that have in any
manner whatsoever the resemblance to fluids.
Lyss.: has cured "involuntary urination on
hearing running water." It has cured a chronic diarrhoea when that symptom
was present.
Faceache: Coloc.:
is especially important, because it is one of the most frequently indicated
remedies for neuralgia of this region.
Sulph.: Long and tedious right-sided neuralgias.
Persistent neuralgias in those that live in a malarial climate, when the short
acting remedies given for the neuralgia, such as Bell. and Nux-v.
relieve only for a short time and Sulph. fits.
Ruta.: "Eyes feel hot like balls of fire."
To use it for a pure inflammation when the eyes feel hot would be a failure.
Euphr., Bell. and Acon. are
used in simple inflammations from a cold, and the anti-psorics
where the case is chronic. But if a woman strains her eyes from long sewing on
fine work, and the balls feel like fire, she needs Ruta.
Acon. inflammation with lachrymation,
and the eyes look like raw beef after exposure to cold winds.
Sil. is full of throat symptoms but is seldom
indicated in acute forms because its pace is too slow; it comes on after there
has been a series of colds, colds > a number of times by Bell. or other
acute remedies, but still continue to settle in the tonsils and in the glands
of the neck. Sil. breaks up the tendency. There is a
catarrhal state in the throat that
is roused up by every cold into an increased flux, with hoarseness,
settling back into the chronic state again; chronic catarrhs of the pharynx. It
competes with Nat-m. in inveterate sore throat.
Calc.: voice painless hoarseness. The vocal cords are tired and cannot
endure strain; almost a paralytic weakness.
Sometimes a copious flow of mucus from the larynx. Much irritation in
the larynx, but weakness.
Bell. and Phos. have
burning and rawness
Phos. painful, in Bell. very painful. He cannot
speak without pain. Calc. wonders why he has so much trouble with the larynx,
because he has no feeling in it
Phos. Bell. Rumx. soreness of the larynx, sore to touch, but the
Brom. soreness is commonly below the larynx and in
the throat pit as well.
Bar-c.: Child with enlarged tonsils, and enlarged glands elsewhere, some
what dwarfish intellectually, slow to learn.
"Inflammation of the tonsils." The inflammation is not so
violent as that which comes on in Bell. it does not come on in a night, it does
not go on rapidly to suppuration;
but it is a very sore throat, has come on slowly and after many days of
exposure and there is gradual growth and development, while that of Bell. comes
on with great rapidity. Hep. is also rapid and goes on to suppuration. There is
a remedy for inflammation of the tonsils where the ear is involved and is
ameliorated by heat that very few use, but it is of great value; it is Cham.
and especially indicated if the patient is irritable. The pain > heat and
comes on with great violence. It might be mistaken for a Bell. inflammation,
but Cham. cures it permanently.
Cycl.: Desires lemonade
Chel.: sitting up in bed with high fever, bending
forward upon his elbows, << motion as Bry. All
of the pains are extremely < motion. This patient is sitting with a pain
that transfixes him; he cannot stir, he cannot move without the pain shooting
through him like a knife. The next day you will see that his skin is growing
yellow. If you see him
in the beginning Chel. relieve him and you
will prevent that pneumonia. It is not uncommon in children and it is extremely
common in adults. Do not get confused with Bry. Both
are violently worse from motion. Bry. wants to lie on
the painful side, or wants to lie on the back if the pneumonia is mostly in the
posterior part of the right lung. In Chel. < touch
and motion. Bell. has that extremely painful tearing rending of the right lung
with pleurisy, but in Bell. one cannot touch the right side, cannot press it,
but must lie on the other side, and he cannot move. Cannot stand a jar of the
bed because of the extreme sensitiveness to motion. All three in this
particular way because they have some things in common, but the remedies are
different.
Puls.: Most troublesome cases of prolapsus.
It competes with Sep., Bell. Nat-m., Nux-v. Sec. all
of these are remedies with great relaxation, bearing down; some have even cured
procidentia.
Squil.: Dry cough at 23 h., < from cold water and
cold air. Bell. has cough at 23 h. < from uncovering, red face, congestion
in head. Lach. has cough soon after going to sleep,
which may be 23 h.
Vorwort/Suchen. Zeichen/Abkürzungen. Impressum.