Veratrum Album - General symptoms

GENERAL

General

Sudden colic (griping?) in the morning in bed, after waking, immediately followed by desire for stool.

an evacuation of yellowish-green, pasty faeces, the last part of which consisted of mucus.

the desire continued even after the evacuation, after which almost clear mucus followed.

there remained in the intestines above the pubes a feeling as if they had been beaten, and there was an unsettled feeling in the pit of the stomach (after twenty hours),.

A perfect picture of Collapse, with extreme coldness, blueness, and weakness, is offered by Veratrum Album. Post-operative shock with cold sweat on forehead, pale face, rapid, feeble pulse. Cold perspiration on the forehead, with nearly all complaints. Vomiting, purging, and cramps in extremities. The Profuse, violent retching and vomiting is most characteristic. Surgical shock. Excessive dryness of all mucous surfaces. "Coprophagia" violent mania alternates with silence and refusal to talk.

VIOLENT EFFECTS; PROFOUND PROSTRATION, COLD SWEAT ON FOREHEAD, FAINTNESS OR COLLAPSE

SUDDEN, EXCESSIVE EVACUATIONS

Cramps; in chest, bowels, fingers, toes, etc

; with rigidity

Progressive weakness and emaciation; in acute diseases, eg whooping cough, ague, etc

Delirium; early; with violence, loquacity or lewdness; during pain

Prays, curses and howls in turn

Acute manias, insanities, etc

Remorse

Loss of ideation

Sits in silence

Melancholia

Overpowering headache

Hair bristles; painful

Red l

cheek, as if burnt

Jaws cramp on chewing

Heaviness in teeth

Burning thirst

Craves ice water or sour drinks

Vomits or eructates froth

EXCESSIVE VOMITING, WITH PURGING; violent retching, cutting colic, cramps in limbs and rapid prostration Cholera; morbus, infantum, etc

Painful epigastrium

Watery, green, odorless or colorless (rice water) stool, or in large masses

Nymphomania

The air seems too hot

Dyspnoea

Tickling down throat, into lungs

Continuous, violent cough; with retching; worse cold drinks

Neglected pertussis, with complications

Aphonia Heart; cuttings at; weak; visible palpitation

Fine burnings, in arms; r

to left

Cramps in calves; during stool (Ap Secale Cornutum ^Sec-c---- ); between scapulae, etc

better motion

Skin feels scorched

Awakes at night trembling

Thready pulse

GENERAL COLDNESS (icy); on vertex; of nose; in mouth; of waterbrash; limbs, sweat, etc

Blood seems to run cold or internal heat with cold (wrinkled) surface

Fevers showing external coldness only

Congestive chill

Veratrum album. White-flowered Veratrum. White Hellebore. N. O. Melanthaceae (of the Liliaceae). Tincture of the root-stocks collected (in the Alps and Pyrenees) early in June before flowering.

Amenorrhoea. Anaemia. Anasarca. Angina pectoris. Apoplexy. Asthma. Bronchitis. Cholera asiatica. Cholerine. Colic. Collapse. Constipation. Coprophagia. Cramps. Debility. Diaphragm, affections of. Diarrhoea. Dysmenorrhoea. Emphysema. Epilepsy. Fainting. Gastric catarrh. General paralysis. Headache.

its discharges are copious; copious stools, copious vomiting, copious urine, copious salivation, and copious sweat.

The discharges drain the tissues like cholera, in which disease its pathogenetic effects render it one of the first remedies, ranking with Camp. and Cuprum Metallicum ^Cupr. in Hahnemann's trio.

The discharges exhaust the vitality as well as the tissues and cause vertigo.

blackness before the sight, fainting, collapse "Rapid sinking of forces.

complete prostration. cold sweat and cold breath." "Skin blue, purple, cold, wrinkled.

remaining in folds when pinched." "Face hippocratic, nose pointed." "Hands icy cold." "Face and legs icy cold." This coldness is another of the keynotes of Ver.

It is one aspect of the fever-producing power of the drug "Coldness of the whole body." "Coldness running over whole body soon after taking it." "Feeling of internal chill ran through him from head to toes of both feet at once." "Continued rigor in back and over arms." Very characteristic are Cold feeling in abdomen;" "coldness as of a piece of ice on vertex;" "cold nose;" "face cold and collapsed;" "cold tongue;" and most characteristic of all, "cold sweat on forehead." Along with the coldness is blueness of face and extremities.

Ver. is like cholera in that coldness predominates in its fever, but it has also "heat and redness of face and hands." With the fever there is apt to be delirium and prolonged sleep.

The delirium may develop great intensity and violence "Fury tears his clothing.

bites her shoes to pieces and swallows the fragments.

cursing. stamping. wants to run away.

makes a great noise." These and kindred symptoms seem to indicate Ver. in acute affections attended with delirium.

and also in cases of mental alienation, which was prominent among the affections treated with the drug by the ancients.

Hahnemann says of Ver. that it has the power "to promote a cure of almost one-third of the insane in lunatic asylums (at all events as a homoeopathic intermediate remedy)." One of the symptoms taken by Hahnemann from Grading is this "He swallows his own excrement," which Goullon has verified (Z. Berl. V. H. A., xix. 156) a child had a craze for eating its own faeces, or dung lying in the street.

Ver. 2., thrice daily, cured in a month.

The mania of Ver. may be of the exalted kind, religious or sexual.

Imagines she is pregnant and will soon be delivered; nymphomania; puerperal mania; mania for kissing everybody have been cured by Ver.

Generally there will be collateral Ver. symptoms to confirm the choice coldness, blueness, collapse, fainting, vomiting, or diarrhoea.

Ver. is a great fainting remedy.

There is fainting from emotions, from the least exertion, from retching, from stool.

Sinking feeling during haemorrhage.

The gastric conditions are characterised by extreme hunger; craving for cold food and refreshing things; thirst for ice-cold water.

Veratrum Album last is very characteristic, and appears in the chill and heat of fever.

The copiousness of the stools distinguishes Ver. from Camphora ^Camph.

The evacuations are apt to be green, vomit, stool, urine.

The characteristic diarrhoea of Ver. is frequent, greenish, gushing.

mixed with flakes. cutting colic, with cramps commencing in hands and feet and spreading all over.

prostrating, after fright.

agg. least movement. with vomiting, cold sweat on forehead during stool and prostration after. "Violent vomiting with profuse diarrhoea "is a keynote of Ver.

The constipation of Ver. is no less characteristic no desire; stools large, hard; in round black balls; from inactive rectum; frequent desire felt in epigastrium; painful of infants and children; of women after confinement.

Ver. is a great pain producer, and the pains of its neuralgias (dysmenorrhoea, migraine) are often accompanied by diarrhoea, vomiting, cold sweat, fainting, or prostration.

Veratrum Album case was reported in P. C. J. H. (vii. 150) Prosopalgia, right-sided, kept an anaemic woman awake and in misery for several days and nights from the crushing paroxysmal pain, causing sweating and prostration.

Ver. cured at once. E. F. Watts (A. H., xxi., 317) had this case Mrs.

C. had severe nervous headaches for years.

Any over-exertion, as riding or working on hot days, would excite them.

They frequently began in occiput, settling sometimes in one eye sometimes in the other. Spi. and Silicea ^Sil. gave no relief.

One day Watts noticed that the brow contracted and eyelids nearly closed with the intensity of the pain.

Ver. was now given and relieved at once.

Gee (M. A., xxv. 22) cured this case with one dose of Ver. 200 Mrs.

L., widow, 43, had sciatica four years.

Pain sharp, transient, darting upwards and downwards and from both sides to centre.

Heat agg.; "the cooler the better." Cold sweat with the attacks.

Headache from both temples to base of brain agg. by heat.

Vertex itches during attacks.

Pain compels her to move about, but no amel. from motion.

The cramps of Ver. are part of its general convulsant properties.

The convulsions of Ver. may be tetanic, with lockjaw, or epileptic.

The eyes are particularly convulsed or the lids paralysed.

There may be vanishing of sight or sparks before the sight or night-blindness.

Dryness and burning are leading sensations as in other parts.

Dryness is felt in nose, mouth, palate, throat.

Ver. has a sharp action on the respiratory organs and has cured many cases of pneumonia when the mental and other symptoms of Ver. have been present.

A leading local symptom is tickling Tickling deep in trachea and bronchi. "Tickling in chest, as if it would provoke cough, in middle of sternum." This symptom helped me to the remedy in the following case Mrs.

W. 30, had much pain inside throat.

Painful ulcer in mouth.

Throat sore and inclined to be ulcerated.

Tickling all over inside of chest and throat; outside tender.

No pain on swallowing.

Has had cold and cough some time, cough hurts chest.

Stan. had no effect. Ver. 1m thrice daily gradually removed all symptoms.

Ver. meets cardiac debility, following acute diseases; pulse thread-like; faints in morning; face red when lying down or sitting up, deadly pale; hands cold, clammy.

Ver. is Suited to ($51$) the extremes of life.

Teste). (4) people who are habitually cold and deficient in vital reaction.

(5) persons of gay disposition.

(6) of fitful mood. (7) anaemic persons. Peculiar Sensations are As if pregnant or in throes of child-birth. As if he had a bad conscience, or had committed a crime. As if in a dream. As if things whirled in a circle. As if a lump of ice on vertex. Burning in brain. As if head would burst. As if heat and cold at same time on scalp. Hair as if electrified. Eyelids as if rubbed sore. As if inner surface of lids too dry. As if hundreds of fine needle-points were thrust into eyelids. As if ears were stopped. As if alternate current of cold and warm air coming out of ear. As if nose dry. As if teeth were filled with lead. As if tongue too heavy. As of dust in throat. As if mouth lined with mucus. As if something alive running from stomach into throat. As from ravenous hunger, pain in stomach. Radiating pain from abdomen. Distress over heart and epigastrium. Sinking, empty feeling in abdomen. As of knives cutting bowels. As of hot coals in abdomen. Pinching as with pincers in abdomen. As if intestines twisted into a knot. As if cold water running through veins. Arms as if bruised or broken. As if bones of l. forearm were pressed. As if arms too full and swollen, feel cold when raising them. As if hands had been asleep. As if a heavy stone were tied to feet and knees. Limbs pain as if exhausted by excessive fatigue. As if she would have to fly away. Electric pains occur in various parts. The symptoms are agg. By touch.

pressure-shock of injury. Slight wounds = fainting. Rest amel. palpitation. Horizontal position amel. vomiting, cough, and general condition. Stooping agg. headache.

= rush of blood to head. Motion agg. Throwing back head amel. asthma. Walking amel. jerks in limbs.

neuralgia of arms and legs.

pain in feet and knees. Least exertion = fainting.

cough. sweat. agg. Night.

and morning on waking. Warmth agg. Hot water agg. Drinking agg. Cold food and drink agg. cough. Drinking cold water on a hot day = diarrhoea. agg. Damp weather. agg. Change of weather. (Rheumatism agg. in wet weather which drives patient out of bed.).

(Severe gastralgia an hour or two after meals, a pain extends from middle of sternum to below ribs, must hold stomach from the violence of the pain, but the pressure does not amel., the pain then extends to above hip, is accompanied by distressing vomiting, brings up a quantity of stuff like vinegar; the pain = thirst, and lasts eight to ten hours; she trembles with it.).

White Hellebore. Hahnemann. Melanthaceae.

* *

Dry, tickling, after walking in sharp, cold air.

dry, spasmodic, rattling, but nothing loosens.

deep, hollow, ringing, whooping, excited by tickling in lowest branches of bronchi, expectoration of yellow, tough, tenacious mucus of bitter, saltish, sour, or putrid taste.

spasmodic. cyanosis. cold sweat.

blood spitting. after great exertion.

loud barking, in hysteria.

worse morning and late evening until 12 P.M.

going into warm room. getting warm in bed.

change of weather. eating and drinking cold things, especially water.

crying (children). vexation.

Vomiting violent, with continuous nausea and great prostration.

of thin, blackish or yellowish substances.

of bile and blood, black.

of food and drink, or drink only.

of food, or acid, bitter, foamy.

white or yellowish-green mucus.

whenever he moves, or drinks.

with vertigo, pale face, clean tongue, good appetite, hiccough, fainting.

You will be astonished at the wonderful coldness running through Veratrum Album.

Coldness Hardly a group of symptoms will arise without this accompanying coldness. Coldness of discharges, coldness of the body. You would also wonder at the remarkable prostration attending the various groups of symptoms, complete relaxation and exhaustion, coldness. Profuse sweat, vomiting and diarrhea.

Profuse watery discharges. These conditions occur without apparent provocation. In cholera or cholera morbus, it seems that the fluids run out of the body.

Lies in bed, relaxed prostrated, cold to the finger-tips, with corresponding blueness, fairly purple.

lips cold and blue, countenance pinched and shrunken.

great sensation of cold ness as if the blood were ice-water.

scalp cold. forehead covered with cold sweat.

headache and exhaustion.

coldness in spots over the body.

looks as if he would die.

Veratrum Album state comes out during the menses, during colic with nausea, with mania and violent delirium, with headache, with violent inflammations. Is it any wonder that Hahnemann predicted that Veratrum, Camphora ^Camphor, and Cuprum Metallicum ^Cuprum would become remedies in the cure of cholera.

he saw in their nature the ability to cure.

He saw the similitude. In cases of this sort which are characterized by superabundance of cramps, Cuprum Metallicum ^Cuprum is the simillimum. For those with coldness and blueness and scanty sweat, vomiting, and purging, Camphora ^Camphor is the remedy. These are called "dry cholera;" they sink down and die without exhaustive discharges. In proportion as there are coldness, blueness and scanty discharges, Camphora ^Camphor is indicated. In proportion as copiousness, blueness, and coldness are present, Veratrum is indicated. Secale Cornutum ^Secale has something of cholera in it. Podophyllum Peltatum ^Podo has exhaustive stools. Arsenicum Album ^Ars anxious restlessness.

Always wants to be busy, to carry on his daily work. A cooper who was suffering from the Veratrum insanity would pile up chairs on top of one another. When asked what he was doing, he replied that he was piling up staves. When not occupied with this he was tearing his clothes, or praying for hours on his knees, and so loud that he could be heard blocks away.

Exalted state of religious frenzy, believes he is the risen Christ screams and screeches until he is blue in the face.

head cold as ice, cold sweat, reaches out and exhorts to repentance. Exhorts to repent, preaches, howls, sings obscene songs, exposes the person. Fear and the effects of fear.

imagines the world is on fire.

"Mania with desire to cut and tear everything, especially the clothes, with lewdness and lascivious talk.

Puerperal mania and convulsions, with violent cerebral congestion; bluish and bloated face; protruding eyes; wild shrieks, with disposition to bite and tear.

Loquacity, he talks rapidly.

She is inconsolable over a fancied misfortune; runs around the room howling and screaming or sits brooding, wailing and weeping."

Alternate states of brooding, screaming, and screeching. A few such remedies would empty our insane asylums, especially of recent cases.

Insanity is curable if there are no incurable results of disease. Full of despair and hopelessness with approaching insanity.

"Despair of his recovery, attempts suicide."

Insane people are not hopeless, those approaching insanity are but after they become insane, they think that everybody is crazy except themselves. Those bowed down by great grief and despair are likely to go into a state of violent mania. Veratrum carries them through the state of despair.

"Melancholia, head hangs down, sits brooding in silence."

Young girls go on for years with menstrual difficulties, and preceding each menstrual nisus is a state of despair; never smiles, the world seems blue, everything is dark; these are preparing for a marked state of insanity.

Vomiting and retching after the stomach is empty; spasmodic retching and cramping of the stomach; you can see the effort to empty the stomach and every little while a mouthful of bile comes up.

Violent rush of blood to the head, congestion of the head with coldness of the extremities. Head feels as if packed with ice, feels as if ice lay on the vertex and occiput (Calc Carb ^Calc). Tension in the head as if the membranes were drawn tighter about the brain; compressive pains.

I remember a farmer who consulted me in the Summer. He had strange sensation when he drank water, as if it ran down the outside and did not go down the oesophagus. It was so marked that he I requested his friends to see if it did not run down the outside. Veratrum 2 M. cured him. No remedy has produced that sensation, but I figured it out by analogy.

Violent thirst for cold water and for ice.

"All fruits cause painful distension of the stomach."

"Vomiting forcible and excessive.

Nausea with weakness; is obliged to lie down; hysterical cramps in the stomach; cramps in the muscles of the abdomen like colic.

Gastric catarrh, great weakness, cold, sudden sinking."

Pains Full of rheumatic and neuralgic pains in the extremities; worse from the warmth of the bed; they drive him out of bed at night into the cold room and be must walk the floor for relief.

You would naturally, suppose that heat would be comforting; so it is at times to the abdomen and other parts when there is coldness, but it aggravates the pains (Merc Viv ^Merc).

"Painful paralytic weakness in the limbs."

"Chill and heat alternating, now here, now there, on single parts.

Internal sensation of chilliness running from head to toes coming on when drinking."

Many of the complaints of Veratrum are aggravated when drinking.

Burning while in cold sweat. In the chronic mental troubles, the skin is dusky and dry with the exception of that on the forehead. But in acute complaints where physical symptoms predominate, as in dysmenorrhoea, acute insanity, etc., there is profuse sweat.

Gnawing hunger in spite of nausea and vomiting. Empty, all-gone feeling in the abdomen after stool.

Collapse, with general coldness and cold sweat, especially on forehead; hippocratic face.

Mania, with desire to cut and tear things, with lewdness, lascivious talk, religious or amorous.

Disposed to silence, but if irritated gets mad. Scolds, calls names and talks of faults of others.

Rice water stools, profuse, exhausting, cramps in calves, coldness, collapse.

Rheumatic affections worse in damp weather; drives patient out of bed.

The pains are maddening, driving the patient to delirium.

Copiousness of discharges stools, vomiting, urine, saliva, sweat; craving for acids or refreshing things.

Veratrum, alb. has some very strong mind symptoms. "Mania with desire to cut and tear things especially clothes, with lewdness and lascivious talk, religious or amorous."

Here the choice will sometimes have to be made between Veratrum Album and Stramonium ^Stramonium. They are both very loquacious, and both strongly religious. Also both at times very violent; but the face of Stramonium ^Stramonium is generally very red and bloated, while that of Veratrum is likely to be pale, sunken or hippocratic.

If we were to describe in one word the general condition, as near as possible, for which Veratrum Album was best, it would be collapse. Let me quote "Rapid sinking of forces; complete prostration. cold sweat and cold breath." "Skill blue, purple, cold, wrinkled, remaining in folds when pinched". "Face hippocratic.

Region

NERVES ABDOMINAL

Heart

Blood

Blood-vessels

Vertex

Respiratory and digestive systems

Characteristics

children and old people; (2) lean, choleric, or melancholy persons; (3) young people and women of a sanguine or nervo-sanguine temperament (of mountaineers.)

Nash.) agg. Sharp, cool air = dry tickling cough. agg. Before and during menses; before and during stool; after stool; during sweat. agg. from fright.