Sepia

SEPIA

Common Name: *Inky Juice of Cuttlefish.

                       (*The black color is due to melanin (the pignment in the human skin).It is used as a camouflage by the cuttlefish).

Constitutional taint: Psora.  Sycosis.   Tuberculosis.

Action: Action especially on the portal system, with venous congestion. Stasis and thereby ptosis of the visera and weariness and misery.

Typical subjects:  Sepia  is suited to tall, slim women with narrow pelvis and lax fibers and muscles; such a women is not well built as a women. Kent says that, "A woman who has the hips of a well-built and is not buit for child bearing, she cannot perform the funtions of a women wihout becoming relaxed in the plevic organs and tissues. Such a build is a Sepia build, very tall, slim, narrow, straight from the shoulders all the way down."

Persons of light complexion, Blondes. "Persons of dark hair, rigid fibre, but mild and eaasy disposition (Puls.)".  Women affected with diseases during pregnancy; during childbed and lactation.

It is called "the washerwomen's remedy." In point of fact, Sepia complaints are brought on by or aggravated by laundry work.

"Children who take cold readily when weaather changes." Scrofulous persons. Men who had been addicted to drinking and sexual excesses." "Pot-bellied mothers, yellow saddle across nose, irritable, faint from leas exertion, leucophlegmatic consitutitions."  Persons with yellow or dirty yellow brown blotched skin. Those who are inclined to sweat, especially about genitals, arm-pits and back.  Hysterical diathesis. "Tubercular patients with chronic hepatic troubles and uterine reflexes.'

Notes and features: 1. Relaxation.  Proplapsus of uterus and vagina; as if everything would protrude from pelvis; must cross her limbs to prevent perotrusion of the parts, with oppression of breathng.  Child always wets the bed during the first sleep. Discharge of prostratic fluid.

2. Milky discharges:  Leucorrhoea  with discharge like milk, only in the daytime; with soreness of pudenda.  Milky  discharge from posterior nares.

3. Yellowish taint.  Patient is of yellowish complexion. Yellow or brown patches on face. Yellow conjunctiva.  A yellow saddle across upper parts of the cheeks and  nose.

4. Offensiveness.  Leucorrhoea, sweat, etc. are fetid. Cheesy or curd-like leucorrhoea which is horribly offensive.   Horribly offensive lose stool. Urine is so offensive tht it mut be removed from the room.

5. Induration.  Indurated eruption like that of epithelioma.  Induration of a part oflip, which cracks and bleeds.  Indurations on eyelids andnose.  Lumps form on the skin. If such lumps wear off at the centre, Sepia kis clearly indicated.  Indurations purple in color.

6..Lumpy.  Ball like sensation.   Ball-like (and heavy) sensation in inner parts, esp. in rectum. This sensation is felt in vagina, uterus. Jelly-like and lumpy stools (in chronic diarrhoea).  Sensation of a lump in throat (Nat. Sulph).

7.Coldness.  Cold legs and feet in bed.  Cold knees or heels. A peculiar condition of value is: "As the feet become hot. The bands become cold and vice versa. Coldness on top of head. Cold in spots. Coldness of extremeties during fever.  Feels cold even in warm room. .

Supression. Consumption after suppressed gonorrhoea. After suppressed gonorrhoea there may arise: 1. Ring of condylomata round anus. 2. Small velvety gonorrhoeal warts round margin of prepuce. "In old cases of suppressed malaria, Sepia brings back the chill, but its mot useful sphere is after a bad selection of the remedy and the cause becomes confused. "

MENTAL SYMPTOMS:   (very important)

Dr. Nash says that, " the mind symptoms of Sepia are like "Pulsatilla", in that she is sad and cries frequently without knowing the reason why. So, if in a tearful mind with uterine disturbances Pulsatilla should fail you, the next remedy  to be studied is Sepia. But there is another conditon of mind not found under Pulsatilla or any other remedy in the same degree, and that is, that , notwithstaanding there is no sign of demential from actual brain lesion the patient, contrary to her usual habit, becomes, indifferent to her occupation, her house work, her family or their comfort, even to those whom she loves the best.  This is a very peculiar symptom and a genuine key-note for the exhibition of Sepia. Then there are other marked symptoms:-Great sadness with tears.  Pensiveness. Dread of being alone: of meeting friends ; with uterine troubles. Weeps when telling symptoms. Indolent: not inclined to do anything, either work, play or any mental labour. In point of fact, the patient is unfit for intellectual labour. Miserly. Comprehension difficult. Language comes slowly. The Sepia women permits no opposition to her opinions. The best impression ofher is lost if controvery arises.  It is a leading remedy for Depression in Women, with uterine troubles.

Head Symptoms:

Upon the head Sepia is one of our best remedies in hemicrania of women of the Sepia temperament, and who are suffering from uterine troubles. Migraine which has existed for years in women with profuse leucorrhoea, is often cured by Sepia.  It corresponds to the left eye and the left temple and the pain extends backward. Headache < open air, ordinary motion, but relieve by violent motion, like most Sepia symptoms in general; > sleep.  Another peculiar headache is, that the pain comes in terrific shocks so as to jerk the head at menstrual nisus, with scanty flow. Then another marked symptom of Sepia is "Involuntary jerking of head backward and forward, especially forenoons when sitting".Hair falls out.

Nose:  The nose is a favorite locality loss of smell; yellow or green thick  crusts fill the nose and cannot be blown out; inveterate discharge of thick yellow pus. "Large offensive-smelling plugs from the nose, often so large tht they have to drawn back into the mouth and expectorated, causing vomitting. Dry coryza especialy of left notril. Blowing of large lumps of yellow or green mucus or yellow-green crusts with blood from the nose."

Eyes:-  Catarrhal symptoms with vesicles and pustules; granular lids; ulcers and psoric manifestations, various infiltrative conditions of the eyes and about the eyes; pustules on th margins of the lids. Tarsal tumos, styes. Musculr asthenopia; black spots in the field of vision; asthenic inflammations and in connection with uterine troubles. Eyes are surrounded by dark rings. Glassy watery eyes in evening.

Ears:-   Herpes behind ears on nape of neck.  The ears discharge thick, yellow pus; offensive

Face & Appearance::(important)    Yellow , blotches on face. Face pale or sallow.   Yellow about mouth. Saddle-like brownish distribtin on nose and cheeks. Face emaciated. Pale bloatedness of face.  "A child looks like a shrivelled dried up old person". Black pores on face.  Herpes, scruf on face. Warts on face. Swelling of under lkip. Moist an scabious eruptions on the red part oflips, and on chin.

Mouth: Tongue white. Taste salty, putrid. Tongue foul but clears during menses. Swelling and cracking of lower lip. Toothache and neuralgia from taking cold. Gums are settled away from teeth.

Throat:  Sensation of a lump in the throat (like Lach.) but the latter is better from swallowing. (The same in worm roubles indcates Cina.). Uneasiness of the collar and corsets like Lach. Worse in the first sleep like Lach.

Stomach:    There is one symptom of Sepia upon the stomach that is also very ch           aracteristic, viz., a "painful  sensation of emptiness, goneness or faintness."The patient will call it an "all gone" feeling sometimes not relieved by eating.  The other remedies which have this symptom very strongly are:

1.    Phosphorus: has more of the typical hunger which is relieved by eating. 

The Ignatia patient is always sighing , cannot get rid of "that feeling".

Oleander has an all-gone empty feeling as if he would die; food does not relieve, is not digesed, but passes undigesed the next day.

Lycopodium: has an all-gone feeling sometimes not better by eating. Felt as markedly before as after eating, and after eating there comes a throbbing.

Kali Carb: has it also, without the amelioration from taking food, it is even intensified by eating, which is followed by a sensation of fulness and throbbing.

Other medicines also hve it in more or less marked degree but none so strongly in connection with uterine symptoms as Sepia unless perhaps it be Murex purpurea, and you will not often have much difficulty in choosing between these last two if you carefully examine all the symptoms. Nausea in morning before eating. Disposition to vomit after eating. Burning in pit of stomach. Longing for vinegar, acids, and pickles, Worse after milk, especially when boiled. Acid dyspepsia with bloated abdomen, sour eructations, Loathes fat. Tobacco dyspepsia. Nausea at smell or sight of food (Colchicum, Arsenicum). Nausea < lying on side.

Abdomen:- Distended with flatus, rumbling and distension. These disturbances are often chronic as in pot-bellied mothers; abdmen covered with brown spots. Flatulent with headache. Liver sore and painful, relieved by lying on right side. Feeling of relaxation and bearing down in abdomen.

Kent says that Sepia has removed tape-worm.

Rectum:- Constipation; large hard stools ; feeling of a ball in rectum; cannot strain; with great tenesmus and pains shooting upward in rectum and vagina. . Now this feeling of weight or ball  in the rectum is not relieved by stool.  Dr. Nash says that Sepia is a remedy for constipation, and that of a very obstinate character.  Like Selenium it has great straining but manual aid is necessary to accomplish the stool.  This is mostly in children.

It is also indicated in Chronic diarrhoea, when stools are jelly-like, lumpy, alternating with diarrhoea and constipation.  Dr. Nash says that he has cured a very obstinate case of entero-colitis(so-called cholera infantum) after the complete failure of two eminent allopths, with Sepia, the leding symptom being being "always worse after taking milk." Oozing moisture from the anus finds its remedy here sometimes, but often in Antinimonium crudum. Prolapsus ani.(Pod.).Then there are haemorrhoids whch develop when the rectum is so packed with faeces and they bleed at stool.

Urinary:   There is much urninary trouble; involuntary urination as soon as the child goes to sleep at night. Sepia is complelled to keep the mind on the neck of the bladder or she will lose the urine; urine is lost when coughing sneezing laughing, the slam of a door, a shock, or when the mind is diverted.  Frequent, constant urging to urinate with milky urine that burns like fire and after standing a while a milky , reddish clay colored ( like sand) deposit will form which is hard to wash off . the vessel. Dr. Kent narrates a case of a sales- woman who was inclined to go to the toilet every few minutes; a violent pain like a knife cutting would hold right on. She was compelled to keep her mind on the urine or she would lose it.  She was tall, slim, with sallow face, distressed look, worn and tired. Sepia cured here and she was never troubled again. Chronic cystitis , slow micturition with bearing-down sensation about pubis.

MALE:  Organs cold. Aversion to   sex. . Offensive perspiration. Gleet; discharge from urethra only during night; no pain. Condylomata surround the head of penis.  Complaints from coition.

FEMALE: (important).: Like male, she has also aversion to sex. Vagina painful during coition. In the famale there is a state as if she had indulged to excess, when this not the case. No endurance, tired after coition, sleepless nights, sleep full of dreams, jerking of muscles, twitching,.Leucorrhoea- yellow, grenish,with much itching;leucorrhoea in little girls;  congestion of the pelvis. A women who has been normal in her relations with her husband brings forth a child, and hen the thought of sexual relations causes nausea and irritability.

The menstrual symptoms are of allsorts, no particular derangements characterizes Sepia.  At one time it was thought that scanty menstruation was the more striking feature, but this is not necessarily so; from provings and clinical observaions, it has cured profuse as well as scant flow.

Most violent dysmenorrhoea in girls of delicate fiber, sallow girls. Typical Pains: "It cures violent dysmenorrhoea." Pains which are ameliorated by external heat. Pains extend into back.

Sepia comes in when the woman ought to menstruate when the child ceases to nurse; sometimes the child dies and menses ought to be established but do not appear, and the mother runs down, pines away; Sepia will establish the flow.(Calc. Is the opposite; the menses come on while the child is nursing.)

-Then there is  a marked symptom of Sepia: "Sensation of bearing down in the pelvis region, with dragging pains from the sacrum; or feeling of bearing down of all the pelvic organs.(Hahnemann)" And also  sometimes she gets "Labor-like pains accompanied with a feeling as though she must cross her legs and 'sit close' to keep something from coming ou through the vagina."(Guernsey).

 -There can be "Prolapsus of the uterus, of the vagina, with pressure as if everything would protrude ."(Lippe)

-"Pain in uterus, bearing down, comes from back to abdomen, causing oppression of breathuing; crosses limbs to prevent protrusion of parts."(Hering.).

Dr. Dunham says that "Experience has shown its value in cases of ulceration and congestion of the os and cervix uteri. Its use supercedes all local applications."

To summarise above, Dr. Nash adds that "No higher authority than the united testimony of these five of our best observers could be brought to show the action of Sepia upon the pelvic organs.

Comparison: Lilium Tigrinum resembles Sepia closely in bearing down and dragging in the uterine region; with Lilium the patient has to support the vulva with the hand; the two drugs are easily differentiated Also compare Murex which also has this symptom- but here there is excessive sexual desire.  Though Dr. Dunham designated Sepia as the remedy par excellence for prolapsus, it should not be prescribed in a routine way. The symptoms are clear and one should always bear in mind , the irrepressible Sepianess of the remedy, that is, its characteristics of weakness, sallowness, epigastric goneness and heaviness.

Sepia like Sulphur, affects the general circulation in a very marked manner. Flashes of heat with perspiration and fainteness is almost as characteristic of this remedy as of Sulphur. But there are,with Sepia more apt to be associated with them the pelvic symptoms already given, and they are also more apt to occur in connection with the climacteric. Indeed, these flashes often seem with Sepia to start in the pelvic organs and from thence to spread over the body.

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Respiratory:Dry-fatiguing cough, apparently coming from stomach. Dyspnoea < after sleep; better rapid motion. Cough in morning, with profuse expectoration, tasting salty. (Phos.; Ambr.)

Heart: Violent, intermittent palpitation. Beating in all arteries. Tremulous feeling with flushes.

Back:  One of  Sepia's most general characteristics is the amelioration from violent exercise; worse on beginning to move but better by getting warmed up. This condition is closely related to the back symptoms. There is a great amount of soreness in the back, the spine aches all the way down. Pressure on the spine reveals sore places, spinal irritation. Aching in the back mostly from the loins to coccyx often coming on from sitting and ameliorated by violent exercise. Apeculiar feature is > from hard pressure. The patient commonly puts a book low down on the chair and presses the back against it. Sepia does not seem to get the amelioration from lying upon the back as Natrum mur. does. Stooping < the backache. "Backache worse from kneeling."There is weakness in small of back.

Sleep: The sleep is full of dreams  and distress; cannot sleep upon the left side because of palpitatin of the heart. Palpitation in sleep, with pusations and trembling all over the body, pulsations to the finger tips.

Fever: In old cases of suppressed malaria, Sepia brings back the chill, but its mot useful sphere is after a bad selection of the remedy and the case becomes confused. Frequent flushes of heat; sweat from least motion. General lack of warmth of the body. Feet cold and wet. Shivering with thirst; worse towards evening.

SKIN(important):-  Brownish  spots on the skin. Herpetic conditons about the knees and ankles, in the bends of joints and behind the ears, at first dry, it becomes moist and discharges copiously. Yellow spots, liver spots; urticaria on gong in open air; better in warm room. Ringworms, herpes circinatus. Chronic nettle rash after milk or pork. Ichthyosis with offensive odor of skin.

Modalities:- Aggravating influences:-  The patient is very much sensitive to cold air, esp. north wind, and there is with Sepia great tendency to take cold.  The patient experiences difficulty in breathing in evening. Worse from alcohol, milk, fat food acids. Eating fat food causes disagreeable risings with nausea.  And eating meat and milk produces diarrhoea from which she is averse therefor.

Worse : afternoon or evening, from cold air, or a dry wind; sexual exceses; at rest; sultry, moist weather; before a thunderstorm(Psorinum)

Better:  Warmth of bed, hot applications, pressure, cold baths. Violent exercise.

Side affinity: Generally left side is afffected. Right upper and rught lower extremeties. Left shoulder blade.

Relations: Comparisons: Smell of cooking food nauseates: Ars.Colch, Sight or thought of food is nauseating: Nux. Vom.  Flushes of heat at climacteric: Lach., Sang., Sulph., tuber. Greedy miser: lyc. Must loosen neckband: Lachesis.

Complementary to Natrum muriaticum, Nux vomica and Sabadilla. (Inimical to Lachesis which shouldnot be used  before or after Sepia.)

Inimical to Bryonia alba, Lachesis and Pulsatilla.

Summary of indications:  Gynaecological disorders-pregnancy disorders-depression-anxiety-leucoderma.

Antidotes:- Aconitum napellus

                   Antimonium curdum

                   Antimonium tartaricum.

STAPHISGARIA

(Stavescre)

 Source:  Delphinium staphisagria. Stavesacre. N. O. Ranunculaceæ. Tincture of the seeds.

Introduction:- The seed of Stavesacre was known to Dioscorides as an agent for producing vomiting and salivation, and for the cure of toothache; "the origin of which application," says Hahnemann.. J. H. Schultze, when suffering from toothache, took some of the seed in his mouth, but it gave him such a violent exacerbation that he thought he should go mad.It was also used as an exterminator of vermin by the Greeks. That is why it is still used for the treatment of Pediculosis in the conventional treatment who do not know more about this herb.  Homeopathically, it is a well proved drug and is widely used in the following ailments in our daily practice:-

Psychological problems - Impotence -  Addiction to excessive smoking -

Postoperative care - Honeymoon cystitis- Styes -     Prostate Enlargement.

Points and Features:

Psychological effects: of sexual abusess.{Sexual sins and excesses- bad effects from-Dr.Boericke] Mind dwindling continually on sexual subjects.

Children: cross  ugly, scrawny, pot bellied children; subject to colic; < after food or drink. Extreme hunger even when stomach is full of food.

Styes: Styes, nodosities, chalazae, on eyelid, one after another, sometimes ulcerating.

Urethra: Burning in the urethra when not urinating; very sensitive to slightest mental impresions; least action or harmless word offends.

Teeth decay: early in children; cannot be kept clean.

Sensation: as if stomach and abdomen were hanging down, relaxed; craving for tobacco.

Mind: The mental symptoms are very imprtant, and the impressions made upon the mind and thence upon the body guide to Staphisagria as a remedy.  Excitable, easily aroused to anger, but seldom irascible, tht is, easily disturbed and excited, but seldom manifests it. Suitable in cases where complaints come from pent up wrath, suppresed anger, suppressed feelings. The person becomes speechless from suppressed indigntion; anger with indignation.  Complaints brought on by these causes; irritable bladder with frequent urging to urinate, lasting many days after suppressed wrath, after insults;  "Great indignation about things done by others or by himself; grieves about consequences.".

A gentleman comes in contact with one beneath his station and an altercation takes place, an argument which ends in insult, and the gentleman turns his back on the other. He goes hom and suffers; he does not speak it out, but controls it andthen suffers from it.  He has sleepless nights and many days of fatigue, brain-fag; for days and weeks he cannot add nor subtract, makes mistakes in writing and speaking, his irritability of the bladder, colic, etc.  Loss of memory with a sense of weight between the eyes; it is difficult to say whether this is a feeling in the head or an effort to describe a dulness of mind.  Feels as if a ball of wood were in the forehead, or as if the whole cerebrum were made of wood;  if feel numb,.  It is difficult to state whether it is a conditon of the mind or head.  Accompanying this sensation of a lump in the forehead is a feeling as if the whole back of the head were hollow; the patient may describe it as a feeling of numbness or lack of sensation.

"Indifferent, low-spirited, dulness of mind after masturbation.".  Staphisgaria cures these conditons when they are the result of sexual excitement, masturbation, excesses in venery, allowing the mind to dwell too much on venereal subjects. Thinking on sexual relations. These patients re irritable, easily fatigued, mot excitable, and when they he to control their emotons they suffer intensly. One who is in health can easiy put aside a controversy, knowing that he has done what is right, but a Staph patient when he has ato control himself goes all to pieces, trembles from head to foot, loses his voice, bis ability to work, cannot sleep and a headache follows.

Many a time , Dr, Kent giving a case narrates, a man hs come into his office with blue lips, trembling hands, pains about the heart and all over, and he thinks he is going to die.  He tells a story of an altercation and pent up wrath, and Staph. Stops his trembling and quiets him.  Without it he wouldhave sleepless nights, brain fag, prostration and headache.  This state belongs especially to those who have indulged in sexual exceses.

    The above examples describing the mental symptoms have been quoted in order to impress the value of Staphisgaria as a mind remedy.  Chammomilla is often used when Staphisagria would be better especially for children(Child cries for many things, and refuses them when offered.), and Nux vomica is sometimes used for adults the same way. Phosphoric acid is sometimes used for the results of onanism when Staphisagria would do better.  You will also notice that this remedy may be indicated for the effects of anger instead of Chamomilla or Colocynth. Here are Chamomilla, Nux Vomica, Cina, Colocynth and Staphisagria standing very close to each other for cross, ugly, irritable subjects, and there are few cases thta one or the other will not fit. Then we he Phosphoric acid, Natrum mur, Abacardium, Aurum and Staph for the apathetic or hypochondriacal.

Head:- The Staphisgaria headache is a numb, dull pain in the occiput and forewhead especially in these nervous constitutions. Stupefying headache; passes off with yawning.  Brain feels squeezed. Sensation of a ball of lead in forehead. Itching eruption above and behind ears (Oleander).

Eyes:-Heat in eyeballs, dims spectacles. Recurrent Styes. Chalazae (Platanus).  Eyes sunken, with blue rings. Margin of lids itch. Affections of angles of eye, particularly the inner. Lacerated or incised wounds of cornea. Bursting pain in eyeballs of syphilitic iritis.

Throat:-  Chronic tonsillitis, tonsils are not large but hard from previous attacks of acutge tonsillitis, strumous diathesis; cross and irritable."Stitches flying to the ear on swallowing, especially left. "Pains come on after eating.

Mouth:- Toothache during menses. Teeth black and cumbling.. Salivation, spongy gums, bleed easily (Merc. Kreos.) Submaxillary glands swollen. After eating feels sleepy pyorrhea (Plantgo).

Stomach:- Staphisagaria has a sensation as if the stomach were hanging down relaxed.  Ipecac and Tabacum have the same sensation. Sometimes it is described as a sinking sensation.   It also has the same sensation in the abdomen; feels as though it would drop, wants to support it with the hands. Desire for stimulants. Craving for tobacco. Canine hunger, even when stomach is full. Nausea after abdominal operations.

Abdomen:-Colic after anger. Colic, which might be styled "habitual colic', in scrawny, urgly, pot-bellied children, and especially if they suffer much with their teeth, which turn black, with tender, spongy gums, which are sensitive and painful. Flabby and weak.  Hot flatus. Swollen abdomen in children, with much flatus. Colic, with pelvic tenesmus. Severe pain following an abdominal operation.  Incarcerated flatus. Diarrhoa after drinking cold water, with tenesmus. Constiption (2 drops tincture night and morning), hæmorrhoids, with enlarged prostate.

Male: Especially after self-abuse; persistent dwelling on sexual subjects. Spermatorrhoa, with sunken features; guilty look; emissions, with backache and weakness and sexual neurasthenia. Dyspnoa after coition.

Female:- Parts very sensitive , worse sitting down (Berb, Kreos.). Irritable bladder in young married women. Leucorrhoa. Prolapsus, with sinking in the abdomen; aching around the hips.

Urinary:- Cystocele (locally and internally). Cystitis in lying-in patients. Ineffectual urging to urinate in newly married women. Pressure upon bladder; feels as if it did not empty. Sensation as if a drop of urine were rolling contininuously along the channel. Burning in urethra during micturition. Prostatic troubles; frequent urination, burning in urethra when not urinating (Thuja; Sabal; Ferr.picr.) Urging and pain after urinating. Pain after lithotomy.

Skin:-Eczema of head, ears, face, and body; thick scabs, dry, and itch violently; scratching changes location of the itching. Fig-warts pedunculated (Thuja). Arthritic nodes. Inflammation of phalanges. Night-sweats.

Extremities:- Muscles, especially of calves, feel bruised. Backache; worse in morning before rising. Extremities feel beaten and painful. Joints stiff. Crural neuralgia.  Dull aching of nates extending to hip-joint and small of back.

Modalities:- Worse: anger, indignation, grief, mortification, loss of fluids, onanism, sexual excesses, tobacco; least touch on affected parts.

 Better:after breakfast, warmth, rest at night.

 Relationship:   Inimical: Ranunc. Bulb.       

Complementary: Causticum and Colocynth. (Used in the following order: Causticum-Colocynth, Staphysgaria.

Compare: Ferrum pyrophos (tarsal cysts);   Colocynth; Caust; Ign; Phos. ac. Calad.

Dose: Third to thirtieth potency.