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PULSATILLA NIGRICANS
Botanical Name:
Anemone Quinquefolia
Common Name:
Wind Flower.
Medicinal Part:
The whole herb.
Description:
This is an exceedingly delicate looking plant, common in
our woods. The slender stem is from 4 to 8 inches
high. The solitary flower is white inside and purplish
on the outer surface.
Constitutional Taint:
Sycotic.
Boericke describes this drug as
"Weather-cock
among remedies".
He says that the disposition and mental state are the
chief guiding symptoms to the selection of Pulsatilla.
It is one of the polychrests and one of
the remedies most frequently used, as
well as often abused.
Typical subjects:
Nash says ,
"the
disposition of Pulsatilla is almost the opposite
of that of Nux Vomica. Nux Vomica is called the
man's
remedy and Pulsatilla the women's
remedy. This means simply that the complaints of one are
found oftener with men while those of the other are
found oftener with women."
Therefore Boericke says that
"it
is pre-eminently a female remedy. It is adapted to
"mild,
gentle and yielding disposition ; cries at everything;
is sad and desponding; weeps about everything; can
hardly give her symptoms on account of weeping."
And again,
"
Sandy hair, blue eyes, pale face, inclined to silent
grief with submissiveness"(Silicea
is its chronic) Nash
therefore says that here we have got a description of
the Pulsatilla temperament as near as words can express
it, and it is a fact that when you find it in a patient
, no matter what the pathological condition,
Pulsatilla will almost surely help. There are few
exceptions. So we learn not to put too much stress on
pathological states to the neglect of symptomatological
conditions.
Prof. K.C.Bhanja
addes in his book;
"Constitution:
Drug Pictures"
Pulsatilla is also adapted to Persons of slow,
phlegmatic temperament; who are indecisive (cannot
arrive a decision with any degree of expedition); who
are timid , of tearful disposition, with a tendency to
inward grief and silent peevishness. Women, who are
inclined to be fleshy with scanty and protracted
menstruation. Women whose menses appears a few days
after the due date. It is hardly applicable to persons,
who form their resolutions with rapidity and are quick
in their movements."
Prof. Bhanja
further says that the Determinative of
Pulsatilla is that it is adapted to persons with
discouragement, indecision, dread of occupation .
Envious, discontented, and covetous, exhibiting itself
in a wish to appropriate everything. Difficulty in
expressing thoughts correctly while speaking and
tendency to omit letters when writing. Great flow of
very changeable ideas. Morbid dread of the opposite
sex. Involuntary laughter and weeping.
NOTES AND FEATURES OF PULSATILLA PATIENT:
1. Ever changing character: Symptoms are ever
changing. Now two stools are alike. Colour and
character of stools are constantly changing. The
patient is
"very
well one hour, miserable the next."
Haemorrhages cease for a time and then flow again
with redoubled force. The flow appears to have
stopped, but in a few hours returns. Intermittent flow
of menses.
"When
one set of symptoms comes on, another vanishes."
2. Chilliness: Constant
chilliness even in a warm room. It acts best when there
is a disposition to chilliness and adipsia(absence of
thirst)
"
Colic with chilliness, when mensturation is suppressed.
We may add ; Coldness of hands, and feet, they seem
dead. Pain are associated with chilliness. Dysentery
with mucous and blood, and associated with chilliness.
3. Thirstlessness: This note runs through
nearly all diseased conditions. Mouth dry, yet
thirstless. In intermittent fever, there is no thirst
during chill; no thirst during heat, or thirst begins as
chill is over; decreases as heat increases, there being
entire absence of thirst during the height of paroxysms,
when fever subsides thirst begins; but the sweat
stage is attended with great thirst. This thirst is,
indeed, of a crazy character and indicates Puls.
4.Metastatasis Metastasis of
mumps to breasts or testicles.
MIND:
Kent says , the Pulsatilla
patient is an interesting one, found in any household
where there are plenty of young girls. She is tearful,
plethoric and generally has little credit for being sick
from her appearances; yet she is most nervous, fidgety,
changeable, easily led and easily persuaded. While she
is mild, gentle and tearful, yet she is remarkably
irritable, not in the sense of pugnacity, but easily
irritated, extremely touchy, always feels slighted or
fears she will be slighted; sensible to every social
influence. Melancholia, sadness, weeping, despair, ,
religious despair, fanatical; full of notions and whims;
imaginative, extemely excitable. She imagines the
company of opposite sex a dangerous thing to cultivate,
and that it is dangerous to do certain things well
established in society as good for the the human race.
These imaginations belong to eating as well as thinking.
They imagine that milk is not good to drink, so they
will not take it. They imagine that certain articles of
diet are not good for the human race. Aversion to
marriage is a strong symptom. A man takes it into his
head that it is an evil thing to have sexual intercourse
with his wife and abstains from it. Religious freaks;
an especial tendency to dwell on religious notions;
fixed ideas concerning the Scripture; he misuses and
misapplies the Scriptures to his own detriment; dwells
on sanctification until he becomes fanatical and insane;
thinks he is in a wonderfully sanctimonious state of
mind, or that he has sinned away his day of grace. This
goes on until he becomes insane on other subjects and
then the tendency is to sit day after day in a taciturn
way. He will not answer questions unless hard pressed,
when all he will say is
'Yes'
or
"No",
or he will merely shake his head. Puerperal insanity in
a women who was mild, gentle and tearful, later sad and
taciturn, and then she sits in her chair all day
answering nothing or merely nodding her head for
"Yes"
or
"No".
Head:
The Pulsatilla headache is a throbbing
congestive headache; much heat in the head, ameliorated
by the application of cold, by external pressure and
sometimes by slow motion, aggravated by lying and
sitting quiet. >by walking slowly in the open air;
becomes worse towards evening and gradually increases
through the evening and night, worse from the motion of
the eyes and from stooping. The pains are often
constricting, throbbing and congestive. Periodic sick
headaches, with vomiting of sour food. Headache when he
overeats. Though he likes ice-cream, he has headache
and congestion of the stomach after eating ice cream.
Ears:
Catarrhal conditions of the ear.
Otorrhoea. Thick bland discharge; offensive odor
Pulsatilla is commonly indicated in earache of children;
when the child is a gentle, fat, plump, vascular red
faced child always pitifully crying. Kent says ,"if
it is case of earache in a nondescript child Pulsatilla
will also prove to be a temporary remedy, so closely is
it related to pain in the ear. Pains in the ears in the
evening or in the night > by walking slowly about the
room.
Eyes:-
Thick, profuse, yellow, bland discharges.
Itching and burning in eyes. Lids inflamed,
agglutinated. Styes. Ophthalmia neonatrum. Sub Acute
Conjuctivitis, with dispepsia < warm room.The patient
is always rubbing the eyes; whether or no there is mucus
in the eyes it matters not; but it is a sensation of
gauze before the eyes > rubbing.
Nose:
Coryza: stoppage of right nostril,
pressing pain at the root of the nose. Pulsatilla is
more indicated in an advanced stage of cold in the head,
what is known as a ripe cold, hence it should not be
given at the beginning of a cold, for it is never
indicated. There is no sneezing or excoriating
discharge with Pulsatilla. The discharge is thick,
yellow, muco-purulent, and, above all, bland. The loss
of smell is present in chronic and acute catarrhs. The
patient feels himself fells better in open air and <warm
room.Pulsatilla is very useful in hay fever associated
with above symptoms.
Face:
The face is sickly, often mottled,
purple, intermixed with yellow and unhealthy colors;
venous puffing; sensation of fulness; often a red face,
like that of health, and the patient gets no sympathy;
face often flushes; flushes of heat to the face; at tims
a sunken look; dark rings about the eyes; sallow, green,
chlorotic. .Mumps and inflammation of parotid glands. If
a women suffering with mumps takes a decided cold the
breasts swell, and there is an inflammation of mammary
gland. Girls take cold the swelling of the parotid
subsides too soon, and the corresponding mammary glands
swells, sometimes both swell; or it may begin in one
and go to the other. In men it is the testicle.
Pulsatilla is one of the most important remedies in this
form of metastasis it breaks up complaints that flit
about.
Mouth:
Pulsatilla
like Nux Vomica is a great remedy for disorders
of digestion. Symptoms-
"Bad
taste in the
mouth, especially early in the morning, or nothing
tastes good, or no taste at all."(Bryonia,
bad taste with coated tongue and thirst; Pulsatilla-no
thirst).Great dryness of the
mouth in the morning, without thirst;
wants it washed frequently. Frequently
licks the dry lips Crack in middle of lower lip. Yellow
or white tongue, covered with a tenacious mucus.
Toothache is > holding cold water in mouth (Coff.)
Offensive odor from mouth (Merc.,Aur.)Alterations of
taste, bitter, bilious greasy, salty, foul. A
striking feature of Puls. Is that he never wants water
despite the fact that his mouth is dry.
Stomach:
Stomach disordered from cakes, pastry,
rich food; particularly fat pork."
(fat, meats generally.)Nux Vomica patient is not
disturbed by fats, but on the contrary likes them and
they agree. With Nux Vomica warm food agrees
best; with Pulsatilla cold things .So
Pulsatilla patient is averse to fat food, warm food
and drink. Flatulence. Dislikes butter(Sang.)
Pulsatilla produces and cures jaundice.
"jaundice
in consequence of chronic susceptibility to hepatitis
and derangement of secretion of bile. With looseness of
bowels, duodenal catarrh., disordered digestion;
feverishness and thirstlessness after quinine.
Abdomen:
Many troubles seem to manifest themselves
in the abdomen by bloating, distension of the abdomen,
flatulence, colicky pains, rumbling, fermentation of
food, and from disorders of menstruation or diarrhoea.
Bloating after eating, especially after fats and rich
food.
Stool:
Rumbling, watery; < at night . No two
stools alike. After fruit (Ars. Chin.) Dysentry ; mucus
and blood with chilliness; May be indicated in diarrhoea
from fright; The stools are greenish yellow and
changeable.
Urine:
Increased desire; worse when lying down.
Burning in orifice of urethra during after micturition.
Involuntary micturition at night, while coughing or
passing flatus. After urinating, spasmodic pain in
bladder..
Female:
First medicine to be thought in cases of
Amenorrhea. It is indicated where the menses flow by
fits and starts, or when the suppression is due to
wetting of the feet; also, in delayed first menses in
chlorotic girls. The mother comes to him saying her
daughter has suffered since her first menses; when she
went in swimming, or got her feet wet, and has suffered
since. The doctor says the parts are undeveloped and she
must be operated on. Puslatilla has established a normal
flow in a few months.
It must be carefully distinguished from
Dulcamara, which has menses suppressed from getting the
feet wet, but whose temperament is not that of
Pulsatilla. Bayes remarks that in amenorrhoea
with anaemia
"great
judgement is required in the selection of the dilution,
which ought to vary from 30th to the ist.,
according to the sensitiveness of the patient."
Jahr
ranks Sulphur with Pulsatilla for
insufficient pale menstruation . The Pulsatilla
patient is disinclined to exertion, with poor appetite
and longing for acids, is apt to faint easily and
suffers from a tremulous anxiety. Senecio is
also useful in amenorrhoea with chlorosis. Tardy menses,
too late, scanty, thick, dark , clotted,
changeable intermittent flow of blood. Leucorrhoea
-
milky which becomes watery, acrid and burning from
being retained in the vagina. It is a mucous, thick,
creamy, white leucorrhoea sometimes replacing menses,
with chilliness, disposition to lie down and lowness of
spirits. Leucorrhoe as in chlorotic subjects. Pain in
back; tired feeling. Diarrhoea during or after menses.
Exaggerated sexual daesire; nymphomania;
wild, beside hereelf with sexual thoughts,
uncontrollable sexual desire. Kent says that he has
seen Pulsatilla cure a great many girls of 16 or 18
years.
Male:Orchitis; pain from
abdomen to testicles. Thick yellow discharge from
urethra; late stage of gonorrhoea. Stricture; urnine
passed only in drops, and stream interrujpted. (Clematis)
|Acute prostatitis. Pain and tenesmus in
urinating worse lying on back.
Respiratory:-
The chest, respiratory organs, and cough
furnish some most troublesome symptoms. Bronchitis,
pneumonia. Dry, teasing cough and dyspnoea; wants the
windows open, aggravated lying down. Cough gagging and
choking. Copious expectoration in the morning, of thick
,yellow-green mucus. Dry, teasing cough at night worse
lying down. Chronic loose cough after measles.
Whooping Cough.
In the larynx we have many symptoms ;
constriction, tickling causing cough. Dry, teasing
cough, <lying and in a warm room. Cough worse at night.
Bronchitis with loose morning and dry
evening cough.
Dyspnoea; oppression from walking fast or
becoming overheated after eating; stopped up nose. After
emotions. Asthma of children from suppressed rash or in
women from suppressed menses. Urine emitted with cough.
Sleep:
Sleeps with hands over head. Cannot sleep
on the left side as it increases the palpiotation and
suffocating . Late falling asleep; sleeplessness on
account of flushes of heat. Wide awake in the evening;
first sleep restless. Wakes un refreshed. Irresistible
sleepiness in afternoon.
Back:
Kent says that in curvature of the spine Puls. Is of
great value. Shooting pain in the nape and back, between
shoulders; in sacrum after sitting. Sensation of cold
water poured down back.
Extremities:
All the limbs are painful, drawing,
tearing pains in the limbs, better from motion and after
motion. Worse from a warm room and better from cold
applications. Swelling of veins in the arms and hands.
Varicose veins of the limbs like Fl. Ac.
Rheumatism of joints; pain in joints as if dislocated.
Sciatica <in the evening and better from slowly
moving about. Feet burn, and he must put them out of
bed. Sols burn and are bruised when walking. Marked
restlessness and twitching of the limbs and feet. ,
numbness of the limb lain on; wandering pains in all the
limbs.
Skin:
Urticaria,
after rich food with diarrhoea, from delayed menses,
worse undressing. Measles. Acne at puberty.
Varicose veins.
Fever:
Chilliness,
even in warm room, without thirst. External
heat is intolerable. Chill about 4 p.m. Intolerable
burning heat at night with distended veins. Chilly with
pains, in spots, worse evening. During apyrexia,
headache, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, nausea.
Modalities:
Worse in Sun, from heat, rich fat food,
after eating towards evening, warm room ,changes of
weather; lying on left or on painless side, when
allowing feet to hand down. Better, open air, motion,
cold applications, cold food and drinks, thought not
thirsty.
Relationship:
Follows well after: Kali-bi, Lyco, Sep.
Sil, Sullph. Complementary: Kali-m,Lyco,.Sil,
Sulph-ac, Arg.nit.
Notes:"Silicea
is the chronic of Pulsatilla in nearly all complaints.
"One
of the best remedies with which to begin the treatment
chronic case (Calc.Sulph).
It is called for in treating patients who
are anaemic or cholorotic who have taken much iron,
quinine and tonics, even years before.
Ailments which owe their origin to
quinine, mercury, sulphur and tea-drinking require
Pulsatilla for antidoting the bad effects thereof.
Potency:
30, 200,1000, up to CM .
Summary of Indications:
Anxiety States
-
insomnia
-
women's
dosorders
-
allergic
disorders
-
childhood exanthemata.
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