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CONIUM MACULATUM
Common Name:
Poison Hemlock, Poison Root, Poison snakeweed..
This herb, as the name suggests, is a
virlent poison . An old remedy, rendered classsical by
Plato's
graphic description of its employment in the death of
Socrates. It is used in our day to day practice for
the following conditions:
Geriatric and climacteric disorders(of
women)
- Fibroids- Tumors
-
Prostate
enlargement
-Vertigo etc. Polyneuropathy-
paraplegia .
Action:
This medicine is another of the so-called
spinal remedies which paralyzes from below upwards, and
the poisoning of Socrates with it is adduced in
illustration. It ought to be a remedy for locomotor
ataxia.
Typical Subjects:-
Troubles at the change of life, old maids
and bachelors. Widowers- getting bad effects
from suppressed sexual desire and those who have been
accustomed to coition .
Points and features:
1. Vertigo, especially < on turning the
head, or looking around sidewise, or turning in bed.
Swelling and induration
of glands, after contusions or bruises.
Urine flows,
stops and flows again intermittently, prostatic or
uterine affections.
Breast
sore, hard and painful during menstrual period.
Mind:-Mental
symptoms, nervous symptoms, trembling, in widows and
widowers who have suddenly been deprived of their sexual
relations. When in a state of considerable vigor, if
suddenly deprived, the woman or the man takes on a state
of trembling, weakness, inability to stand any mental
effort, and inability to put the attention upon things
said by others. Not so marked or not so common in the
woman as in the man. When this state comes on in a
woman who is of unusual sexual vigor there may be severe
congestion of the uterus and ovaries, Apis is more
likely to fit her symptoms than Conium. But with
hysteria and excitablilty Conium is often the remedy.
Many of its symptoms come about from such a cause.
Conium has such a deep action that it
gradually brings about a state of imbecility. The mind
gives out. The mind at first becomes tired like the
muscles of the body. Unable to sustain any mental
effort. The memory is weak. The mind will not
concentrate it will not force itself to attention; it
cannot meditate, and then comes imbecility. Inability
to stand any mental effort or to rivet the attention
upon anything , are some of the most symptoms in this
medicine. Insanity of a periodical type. Imbecility,
though, is far more frequent than insanity. When you
come to examine the mental states you will see symptoms
that will make you think the patient is delirious, but
that is not quite it. It is a slow-forming weakness of
mind not that rapid, active state, such as accompanies a
fever, it is a delirium not that rapid, active , active
state, such as accompanies fever, so as to speak, which
is not constant. Forms of insanity that are passive.
He thinks slowly, and he continues in this stage for
weeks and months, if he recovers at all. Those
excitable cases that have more or less violence and
activity in mental states are such as will correspond to
Bell, Hyos.,Stram;. And Ars. You see nothing of that in
this medicine. Conium is of slow, passive character.
Complete indifference; takes no interest in anyting,
particularly when walking in the open air.
"He
is averse to being near people and to talking of those
passing him; is inclined to seize hold of and abuse
them.".
That, of course, is an insane act
"Sad
and gloomy. Great unhappiness of mind, recurring every
fourteen days,"
showing a two weeks periodicity. The Conium patient will
sit and mope in the corner in a state of sadness and
depression, giving no reason only that he is so sad.
Everything vexes and disturbs him. Cannot endure any
kind of excitement, it bring on physical and mental
distress, brings on weakness and sadness. Sometimes
Conium symptoms will be found in persons who have
suffered from grief; they become broken in memory. This
is likely to come first. They forget, never can recall
things just as they want them. And so they grow weaker
and weaker until they become imbeciles. If it is
decidedly mental, imbecility results; if it is taking a
physical course the ending is paralysis, and it is not
uncommon for a general paralytic weakness to come on, so
that body and mind progress toward weakness together
until some decided manifestation is made, and then it
will be seen to be going toward paralysis, or some
decided manifestation is made which will send it toward
imbecility, and then the body will seem to remain
stationary. Here Dr Kent
says,
"there
comes a time in these cases where there is a sort of
division between the body and the mind. Whenever under
homeopathic treatment the physical improves and the
mental grows worse, that patient will never be cured.
There are such cases I never like to see the physical
grow better and the mental grow worse in any degree.
That does not mean the aggravation caused by the remedy.
If the mental does not improve it means that the patient
is growing worse. There is no better evidence of the
good action of a remedy than mental improvement."
Conium
patients cannot endure even the slightest alcoholic
drink. Any wine or stimulating beverage will bring on
trembling, excitement, weakness of mind and
prostration. Excitement causes mental
depression. [ Depressed, timid, averse to society,
and afraid of being alone. ]
Head:
Vertigo: which is much aggravataed by
turning the head sidewise.(Coloc.,
turning head to left.) Turning over in bed is
the same. Some say lying down in bed and turning over.
Dr. Nash says,"I
have found that it is not so much the lying down
as it is turning of the head sidewise, whether in an
upright or horizontal posture. Headache, stupefying,
with nausea and vomiting of mucus, with a feeling as of
foreign body under the skull. Scorched feeling on top.
Tightness as if both temples were compressed; worse
after a meal. [Gels,; Atropine] Bruised,
semilateral pains. Dull occipital pain on rising in
morning.
Eyes:-
There is muscular weakness of all the muscles of the
eye,so tht the Conium patient is unable to watch moving
objects without getting sick headaches, visual and
mental disturbances. Riding on the cars, watching things
in rapid motion, and inability to focus rapidly-slowness
of the accommodation is what we must cal it-is the cause
for many sicknesses. Inability to follow moving objects
with sufficient rapidity and a headache comes on.
"Objects
look red, rainbow-colored, striped; confused spots;
double vision; weakness of sight. Short sighted; cannot
read long without letter running together."All
this is due to defective accommodation.
"Sluggish
adaptation of the eye to varied range of vision. Vision
becomes blurred when he is irritable. Weakness and
dazzling of the eyes together with dizziness.
Aversion to light without inflammation of the eyes."
Photophobia and excessive lachrymation. Corneal
pustules. Dim-signted; worse, artificial light. On
closing eyes, he sweats. Paralysis of ocular muscles. [Caust.]
In superficial inflammations, as in phlyctenular
conjunctivitis and keratitis.
Face:
a marked condition is tht of swelling of the glands
about the face, ear and under jaws.The parotids are
swollen and hard. The same gradually increasing hardness
in the sub-maxillary and sub-lingual glands. Enlargement
of the glands of the side of the neck in cancerous
affections. ; It has cured epitheolioma of cheek.
Mouth:
Ulcers about the lip with induration. Deep under the
ulcer there will be hardness, and along all the vessels
that send lymph towards that ulcer there will be a chain
of knots. It has cured epitheolioma of cheek.
Ear:
Defective hearing; discharge from ear blood colored.
Nose:
bleeds easily-becomes sore. Polypus.
Throat:
Paresis extending to paralysis of the oesophagus ;
difficulty in swallowing; food goes down part way and
stops. As food is about to pass the cardiac orifice it
stops and enters with a great effort.
"Strange
rising in the throat , with sense of stuffing, as if
something were lodged there. Sense of fullness in the
throat as of a lump, with involuntary attempts at
swallowing. Fullness of in throat with suppressed
eructations. Pressure in oesophagus as if a round body
were ascending from stomach."
That is a nervous affection found in nervous women and
has been called globus hystericus. When a women feels as
if she wanted to cry, and she swallows and chokes, she
will have a similar lump in the throat. Nervous,
broken-down constitutions; tired of life; sees nothing
in the future but sickness and sorrow and paralysis or
imbecility. When they have their lucid moments they weep
become sad over their enlarged glands and weakness, and
have a lump in the throat.
Stomach:
There are many stomach troubles; ulceration of thae
stomach; cancer of the stomach. Conium is one of the
greatest palliatives in symptoms of the stomach when all
the symptoms agree. It will palliate cancerous
conditions for a while, then on comes the difficulty
again, because when the symptoms have advanced
sufficiently to indicate Conium many times, there
is no hope of cure..Dr.Kent..
Other symptoms of Stomach are: Soreness about the root
of tongue. Terrible nausea, acrid heartburn, and
acid eructations; worse on going to bed. Painful
spasms of the stomach. Amelioration from eating and
aggravation a few hours after meals; acidity and buring;
painful spot the level of the sternum.
Abdomen:
Severe aching in and around the liver. Chronic jaundice,
and pains in right hypochondrium. Sensitive, bruised,
swollen, knife-life pains. Painful tightness.
Stools:
Frequent urging; hard; with tenesmus. Tremulous
weakness after every stool. [Verat.; Ars.; Arg-n.]
Heat and burnin in rectum during stool.
Urine:
Much difficulty in voiding. It flows and stops again.
[Ledum] Interrupted discharge. [Clematis].
Dribbling in old men .[Copaiva].
Male:-
(Important): Weakness of the sexual powers of the
male; impotency. He may have most violent sexual desire
yet he is impotent.[Desire increased; power decreased]
"Great
sexual desire with partial or complete incapacity.
Emissions without dreams. Painful emissions and painful
ejaculations."
There is a catarrhal state of the seminal vesicles
atttended with much soreness, so that when ejaculatin
takes place there is cutting like a knife, as if the
semen were acrid. Bad effects from suppressed sexual
desire in widowers and those who have been accustomed to
coition. Testicles hard and enlarged.
Female(Important):-Dysmenorrhoea,
with drawing-down thighs. Mammae lax and shrunken,
hard, panful to ouch. Stitches in nipples. Want to
press breast hard wth hand. Menses delayed and scany;
parts sensitive. Breasts enlarge and beocme painful
before and during menses. [Calc.c; Lac.can].
Rash before menses. Ovaritis; ovary enlarged indurated;
lancinating pain. Ill effects of repressed sexual
desire orsupressed menses, or from excessive
indulgence. Leucorrhea after micutrition. It has
restrainedcancerous growth of the cervixand also highly
indicataed in Uterine fibroids and tumors. Many
cancerous affections of breasts (Asterias rubesn),
uterus have been cured by Conium. Conium
and Silicea both have hardness of mammae.
Conium right, Silicea left nodules (Carbo
anmalis, Conium Silicea.); acute lancinating pains.
(Asterias).
Respiratory:
Dry cough, almot continuous, hacking; worse, evening and
at night; caused by dry spot in larynx with itching
in chest and throat, when dlying down, talking or
laughing and during prenancy. Dyspnoea on taking the
least exercise.
Back:
Dorsal pain between shoulders. Ill effects of
bruises and shocks to spine. Coccygodinia.. Dull
aching in lumbar and sacral region.
Extremities:-
Locomotor Ataxia. Dr. Nash has quoted a
case cured of this disease,
"The
patient had been slowly losing the use of his legs;
could not stand in the dark; and when he walked along th
street would make his wife walk either ahead of him, or
behind him, for the act of looking sidewise at her or
in the least turning head or eyes that way would cause
him stagger or fall. Conium cured him."
It was a c.m. dose- which gave aggravation first with
improvement following. Other important symptoms are:
extremities are heavy, weary, paralyzed; trembling;
hands unsteady; fingers and toes numb. Muscular
weakness, especially of lower extremiteis.
Perspiration of hands,
Putting feet on chair releive pain.
One of the other important characteristic
of Conium is that The sufferings and conditons are
better by letting the limbs hand down. It is common
for pains and aches to be releived by putting the feet
up on a chair, by putting them up in bed. But the
patient with rheumatism, with the ulceration of the legs
and other strange sufferings of the legs will lie down
and permit his legs to hang over the bed up as far as
knee. That is something that somebody ought to
underftake to account for, so we could have at least one
thing we could prescribe for under pathology. But as Dr.
Kant says, upto date we have no explanation. Tottering
gait in middle-aged men.
Skin:
Axillary glands pain, with numb feeling down arm.
Induration after contusions. Sweats copiosly as soon
as one sleeps, or even when closing eyes. Night and
morning sweat, with offensive odor and smarting in skin.
Modalities:-
Worse: At night; Lying down;
Turning in or rising up from
bed;
Celibacy (Or excessive sex).
Better:
While fasting; In the dark; From letting limbs hand
down;
From motion and pressure.
Antidotes:
Coffea Cruda; Dulcamara; Nitricum
acidum.
N.B.
This poison administered to Socrates. (400 B.C).
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