Comparison Belladonna and
others
[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-conscious
ness, 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. Intermittents, 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.
especially in those children who seem 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.
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
fifteen to fifty 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. 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." That 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. Three remedies indicated in faceache
more often than any others: Bell. Mag-p. Coloc.
The Bell.
pains are as violent as any, + red face, flashing eyes, hot head and great
sensitiveness of the part to touch. In Coloc.: pain come in waves, > heat/pressure;
< during rest; brought on by excitement or vexation.
Generally
on the left side; while those of Bell. are on the right, and are caused by
cold. Mag-p. has tearing pains that shoot like lightning along the nerves and >
heat and pressure.
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 which are
ameliorated 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.