Conium Maculatum - General symptoms - Nash

GENERAL

General

Vertigo, especially worse 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.

Breasts sore, hard and painful during menstrual period.

Conium Maculatum is another of the so-called spinal remedies. I will not, as I did under Cocculus Indicus ^Cocculus quote what authorities say from a pathological standpoint. All seem to agree that it paralyzes from below upwards, and the poisoning of Socrates with it is adduced in illustration. It ought to be a remedy for locomotor ataxia The strongest characteristic I know, from a homoeopathic standpoint, it its peculiar vertigo, which is much aggravated by turning the head sidewise. (Colocynthis ^Coloc., turning head to left). Turning over in bed is the same. Some say lying down in bed and turning over. I have found that it is not so much the lying down as it is the turning of the head sidewise, whether in an upright or horizontal posture.

I once treated a case of what seemed to be locomotor ataxia with Conium Maculatum.

The patient had been slowly losing the use of his legs; could not stand at the dark; and when he walked along the 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 to stagger or fall.

Conium cured him. It would always aggravate at first, but he would greatly improve after stopping the remedy. The aggravation was just as invariable after taking a dose of Fincke's c. m. potency as from anything lower, but the improvement lasted longer after it.

Taking an occasional dose from a week to four weeks apart completely cured him in about a year. It was a bad case, of years' standing, before I took him.

I have often verified this symptom in the vertigo of old people, where it is most frequently found; but it also often accompanies various affections in all ages, and especially is found in ovarian and uterine affections. I know of no remedy that has this symptom so strongly.

There is a form of ophthalmia in strumous subjects which calls for Conium in preference to any other remedy, and the peculiar, prominent and uncommon (as Hahnemann says, Organon, § 153) symptom is, photophobia, intense, out of all proportion to the objective signs of inflammation in the eye. The pains are worse at night and terribly aggravated by the least ray of light, relieved in dark room and by pressure.

In all the scirrhous affections of the breast, womb or other parts the pains of Conium are burning, stinging, or darting, and may make one think of Apis Mel ^{Apis mellifica}. The other symptoms must then decide between them.

Conium has marked action upon the sexual organs. In the male there is great weakness of the organs. He has intense desire and amorous thoughts, but is unable to perform. He has emissions at the very thought or presence of a woman. The erections are insufficient, last only a short time, or "go back" on him in the act of embrace, and he suffers with weakness and chagrin afterwards. This affects the mind and hypochondriasis of the bluest blue takes possession of him.

Conium Maculatum condition of mind may obtain in both sexes; as a result of too free, and also especially too infrequent indulgence; or, excessive abstemiousness. Hence Conium becomes a good remedy for old bachelors and old maids. If the vertigo is also present in such cases Conium is sure to be of great benefit.

Intermittent flow of urine is very characteristic (Clematis Erecta ^Clematis). One might think that this was owing to a paralytic condition of the bladder. I don't know; but I do know that the symptom often occurs in the hypertrophy of the prostate gland incident to old age and Conium helps. "Sweats day or night.

as soon as one sleeps or even when closing the eyes," is a characteristic found under no other remedy that I know of. (Reverse Sambucus Nigra ^Sambucus).

Dr. Adolph Lippe once made a splendid cure of complete one-sided paralysis in a man 80 years of age with Conium Maculatum, and was guided to it by this symptom. I think it would be rather a difficult task to give a correct pathological explanation of such a symptom; but there is a reason, and whether we can give it or not we can cure it if we have a corresponding one appearing under a remedy.

It is interesting to follow out the connections of symptoms.

Take for instance the single prominent symptom of Conium