Aethusa Cynapium - General symptoms - Clarke

GENERAL

General

Aethusa cynapium. Fool's Petroselinum ^Parsley. (Europe.) N. O. Umbelliferae. Tincture of whole flowering plant.

it is indeed a medicine for "fools." There is great weakness of mind or body. One very characteristic symptom is Inability to think or fix the attention. Guided by this symptom I once gave it to an undergraduate preparing for an examination, with complete success. He had been compelled to give up his studies, but was able to resume them, and passed a brilliant examination. To a little waif in an orphan home who suffered from severe headaches and inability to fix his attention on his lessons I sent single doses of AEthus. at rare intervals, with very great relief. The little boy asked for the medicine himself subsequently on a return of the old symptoms. Other mental symptoms are Idiocy.

in some cases alternating with furor. Hallucinations. Delirium.

sees cats and dogs. wants to jump out of bed, or out of the window. Irritability, especially in open air. Guernsey says "The mental symptoms peculiar to children, and frequently of adults, are, great anguish and crying. As the disease progresses the patient becomes more and more retired in his disposition, and more inclined to weep." Somnolence. Dotage. Another marked characteristic is Intolerance of milk.

vomiting of everything taken, especially milk, which is ejected in yellowish or greenish curds. There is great weakness and exhaustion after vomiting.

the child is so exhausted it falls asleep at once. It awakens hungry, eats, and vomits again. "Hungry after vomiting" is the keynote here. There is also griping, with diarrhoea, vomiting, crying. For adults who complain of regurgitation of food an hour after it has been taken AEthus., says Guernsey, is invaluable. Also copious vomiting in adults, with a great feeling of distress.

can't tell what the distress is about but still it exists. Adults complain of a sensation as though the stomach was turned upside down, accompanied by a burning feeling up to the chest. Tearing pains in stomach extending into oesophagus.

abdomen tense, inflated, sensitive. There is an herpetic eruption on tip of nose. Along with the gastric symptoms there is a peculiar expression of great anxiety and pain (Linea nasalis), a surface of pearly whiteness on upper lip bounded by distinct lines from wings of nose to angles of mouth. Other symptoms are Sensation of swelling in head and face on entering a room. Sunken cornea. Eyeballs convulsed and directed downwards. Sleep after attacks. Sensation of swelling in hands after walking. Convulsions, with cold limbs. The pains are lancinating. Swelling of mammary or axillary glands, with lancinating pains. Prostration.

stupid. All symptoms agg. 3 to 4 a.m. Heat = all eruptions to itch intolerably. As with Bovist. and Asterias Rubens ^Aster. r. symptoms are agg. by coffee, wine, drunkenness, cold water, and warmth of bed.

amel. by a walk in the open air, and by conversation. amel. In open air (except mental symptoms). The remedy is suited to teething-children and choleraic affections in old age.

Clinical

Brain-fag. Cholera infantum. Convulsions. Cough. Delirium. Diarrhoea. Dyspepsia. Ear, discharge from. Epilepsy. Excoriation. Eyes, affections of. Glands, affections of. Headache. Herpes. Hiccough. Idiocy. Infantile paralysis. Mind, weakness of. Sleeplessness. Stomach, disorders of. Trismus. Vomiting.

Characteristics

The symptoms of Aethusa are particularly clearly defined, in fact violence is one of the notes of its action

violent vomiting, violent convulsions, violent pains, violent delirium. On the other hand there is prostration and somnolence. "Fool's Petroselinum ^parsley" has not received its name for nothing