Bovista Lycoperdon

"This globular fungus, which, according to report, is eaten in, Italy before it is

ripe, becomes filled, while ripening, with a blackish dust that breaks the husk which contains it,

with a slight noise." Corresponding to this signature, "bloatedness," puffy condition of body

surface," and a sense of "enlargement," flatulent distension and noisy passage of flatus, are

leading features of the Bovista pathogenesis. Bovista has cured cases of ovarian cyst; and also

warts and corns, with shooting pains. There are ebullitions with great thirst. The corners of the

mouth are broken out. Numb, pithy feeling in mouth. There is stuttering and stammering speech.

Awkwardness, misapplies words in speaking and writing. Relaxation of entire capillary system;

hemorrhagic diathesis; hemorrhage from menstrual irregularities; from traumatism. Menstrual

flow occurring only or chiefly at night. Hemorrhage between the periods. The puffy, expanding

properties of the remedy are shown in a puffy condition of the body surface; instruments (e.¢.,

scissors) indent the fingers in an unusual degree. The heart feels enormously large. Bovista has

colic like Co/oc., causing the patient to bend double, but it differs from Coloc. in that the colic is

• ▸> by eating and is sometimes accompanied by voiding of red urine.
• ▸M.
• ▸L.
• ▸Sircar has recorded a

striking cure of such a case with Bov. 3x, the pain being griping-twisting, intermittent, starting

below umbilicus and diffusing itself towards epigastrium; some constipation; urine scanty and

reddish. Nothing gave relief except eating. "Itching at top of coccyx" is another characteristic

symptom. A case of cyst in broad ligament was cured, presenting these

symptoms:—Metrorrhagia, flow at night or early morning, easily provoked from slight over-

exertion during menses; can bear nothing tight round body; menses preceded and followed by

diarrhoea; acrid corrosive leucorrhcea, flowing at night only, follows menses.—"We may always

think of Bovista when we see a very "tettery" person, one who has tetters here and there, all over

the body. These tetters may be either moist or dry" (Guernsey). Teste observed psoric eruptions

appear on the hands and feet of a patient to whom he gave Bov. for headache. He cured with it a

"red, crusty eruption on thighs and bends of knees of eighteen years' duration. It disappeared for

• ▸weeks, reappearing in hot weather and at the full moon.
• ▸W.
• ▸S.
• ▸Gee cured with Bovist.
• ▸4, after the

failure of Rhus, the following case. A widow, 55, had an eruption, which she thought to be

erysipelas, on right foot. Some years before she had had an eruption on left foot, which

discharged much water, and was "cured" by the use of a salve. A few months later the left knee

became affected and the limb was amputated above the joint. The present eruption was fiery red,

covered with yellowish-brown scales, thick as an old-fashioned wafer. There were also

rheumatic pains in the leg. After Rhus had been given without benefit, Dr. Gee elicited these

additional symptoms: "Occasional spells of short breathing, especially from working with the

hands. Sleep disturbed by burning and itching, and also by anxious, frightful dreams; headache

when waking from sleep. Frequent desire to urinate, even immediately after urinating." These

symptoms being found under Bovist. in addition to "moist vesicular eruptions, with formation of

thick crusts," the latter put in heavy type by Lilienthal, this medicine was given with steady

improvement and eventual cure. Great weakness of the joints. Sensitive to touch, cannot bear

• ▸clothing.
• ▸Sensitive to draught, chilliness predominates.
• ▸Early morning sweat < on chest.
• ▸Many

symptoms are < in early morning; the diarrhoea occurs then. Sweat of axilla smells like onions.

Symptoms generally are < morning; < cold food; > hot food. < Hot weather; < at full moon.

Effects of over-exertion. Bending double > colic; straightening up > shooting pains between

• ▸shoulders.
• ▸Bovista antidotes effects of charcoal fumes.
• ▸Easily intoxicated; < from wine.
• ▸< From

coffee.

Enlarged sensation (Arg n). Awkward; everything falls from hands. Sensitive.

Dejection and sadness, when alone.—Placid melancholy, with inquietude and sombre

thoughts.—Sad, depressed, and desponding.—Great sensitiveness; irritable, takes everything

amiss.—Great loquacity and unreserved conversation—Weakness of memory.—Absence of

mind.—Awkwardness; allowing everything that is taken hold of to fall.—Misapplication of words

in speaking and writing.—Laughs and cries alternately.

Great lassitude and want of strength, esp. in the joints —Ebullition of the

blood, with much thirst.

• ▸Sensation as if head were enlarging, especially of occiput.
• ▸Distensive headache; worse early morning, open air, lying.
• ▸Discharge from nose stringy, tough.
• ▸Dull, bruised pain in brain.
• ▸Stammering (Stram; Merc).
• ▸Scalp itches; worse, warmth; sensitive; must scratch until sore.

Intoxication after having drunk but very little wine.—Vertigo as if everything turned

round in a circle.—Stunning dizziness, with loss of sense.—Sudden attacks of vertigo and feeling

of stupidity in bed; on rising, loses consciousness for a moment preceding and following a

headache in morning.—Pains in the centre of the brain, with a sensation as if the head were

enlarged.—Pains in the head pressing inward; pains from side to side pressing outward; as if both

sides were pressed towards each other.—Headache on waking, as after too long a

sleep.—Stunning headache with heat in the eyes.—Nocturnal cephalalgia, with insupportable pain

on raising the head.—Aching pains in the head, with throbbing, as in an abscess —Compressive

cephalalgia—Sharp pains in the head, with heaviness and a bruise-like sensation.—Excessive

sensibility in the scalp to the touch —Falling off of the hair.—Excoriated spots on the scalp.

Painful twisting in the eyes, with pressure in the sockets; bone sensitive to pressure,

during menstruation.—Nocturnal agglutination of the eyelids.—Eyes dull, without brightness, and

without fire—Objects seem to be nearer than they really are.

• ▸Ulcer in the r.
• ▸ear.
• ▸—Ulcers in the ears, with pain on swallowing.
• ▸—Scabby and humid

• ▸eruption in the ears.
• ▸—Oozing of fetid pus from the ears.
• ▸—Itching in the ears.
• ▸—Diminution and

hardness of hearing, with frequent mistakes.

Excoriation in the nostrils.—Nostrils scabby, with burning pain.—Scurfs and crusts

about nostrils.—Stoppage of the nose, which impedes respiration.—Fluent coryza, with secretion

of serous mucus and confusion in the head.—Bleeding of the nose early in the morning (during

sleep).

• ▸Scurf and crusts about nostrils and corners of mouth.
• ▸Lips chapped.
• ▸Bleeding of nose and gums.
• ▸Cheeks and lips feel swollen.
• ▸Acne worse in summer; due to use of cosmetics.

Heat in the cheeks, as if they were going to burst.—Face alternately pale and

red.—Extreme paleness on getting up in the morning.—Piercing and digging in the cheek-

bones.—Very pale swelling of the upper lip, of the nose, and of the cheeks.—Swelling of the

upper lip (and cheek, after toothache) in scrofulous subjects.—Sensation of a splinter, or of

• ▸something sticking in lips.
• ▸—Lips cracked.
• ▸—Corners of the mouth ulcerated.
• ▸—Rheumatic pains in

the lower jaw, with swelling and pulsative pains in the sub-maxillary gland.

Accumulation of saliva in the mouth.—Sensation of torpor in the buccal

• ▸cavity.
• ▸—Stuttering.
• ▸—Incisive pains in the tongue.
• ▸—Ulcers on the edges of the tongue, with pain

like excoriation.—Putrid smell from the mouth.—Sore throat, with scraping and burning pains.

Pains in the upper incisor teeth, followed by swelling of the upper lip.—Drawing

odontalgia, esp. in the hollow teeth, in the evening and at night, mitigated by heat and walking in

the open air.—Piercing and digging in the teeth—The gums bleed easily at night, or on sucking

them.

Sensation as of a lump of ice. Intolerant of tight clothing around waist.

No appetite for breakfast.—Nausea in the morning, generally vomiting a watery

fluid and relieved by eating breakfast.—Putrid taste in the mouth—Taste of blood.—Desire for

cold drinks, esp. in the afternoon and evening.—Eager and continual hunger, even after a

• ▸meal.
• ▸—Great sleepiness after having eaten, esp.
• ▸after dinner and in the evening.
• ▸—Hiccough

before and after a meal.

Nausea, with chilly disposition from morning till noon.—Sensation of cold in the

stomach, as if a piece of ice were there.—Pressure and fulness in the precordial region, with

tension in the temples and anxiety.

• ▸Colic, with red urine; relieved by eating.
• ▸Must bend double.
• ▸Pain around umbilicus.
• ▸Stitches through perineum towards rectum and genitals.

Chronic diarrhoea of old people; worse at night and early morning.

Pains in the umbilical region after having eaten, as if the abdomen were cut by

knives.—Colic > by eating. —Twisting colic causing patient to bend over; sometimes voiding red

urine; > by eating —Cutting in fore part of abdomen, > by eating.—Colic < by rest—Violent

cutting, aggravated by repose.—Painful sensibility of the exterior and interior of the

abdomen.—Violent colic, with coldness, to such an extent as to cause shuddering and chattering

of the teeth, esp. after going to stool.—Pains of ulceration and shooting in the

abdomen.—Frequent escape of fetid wind.—Colic, which causes the patient to double over, and

accompanied by the voiding of red urine, > by eating.

Ineffectual urging to stool.—Stool hard and difficult.—After stool,

• ▸tenesmus and burning at the anus.
• ▸—Constipation.
• ▸—Hard and compact feeces.
• ▸—In the rectum,

itching as from worms.—Darting from the perinzeum to the rectum and the genital

organs.—Diarrheea with colic, cuttings, and pain of ulceration in the abdomen.—The first portion

of the stool is hard, and the latter part thin and watery.

Frequent inclination to make water.—Frequent desire to urinate, even

immediately after urination (diabetes mellitus).—In the urethra, stinging, itching, burning; the

orifice is inflamed, and feels as if glued up.—Pain of ulceration in the urethra on making water.

• ▸Diarrhoea before and during menses.
• ▸Menses too early and profuse; worse at night.
• ▸Voluptuous sensation.
• ▸Leucorrhoea acrid, thick, tough, greenish, follows menses.
• ▸Cannot bear tight clothing around waist (Lach). Traces of menses between menstruation.
• ▸Soreness of pubes during menses.
• ▸Metrorrhagia; Parovarian cysts.

Catamenia premature and too copious.—Catamenia flow only in

the night.—Catamenia, too early and two profuse, or too late, too scanty, too short; flowing only

• ▸at night.
• ▸—Before the catamenia, diarrhoea.
• ▸—Flow of blood during the intervals.
• ▸—Leucorrheea: a

few days before or a few days after menses; while walking; like white of egg; yellow-green,

acrid, corrosive, leaving green spots on clothes; thick, slimy, tough.—Excoriation in the inguinal

fold during the catamenia.

Increase of sexual desire —Frequent pollutions.—After coition,

staggering, confusion, and numbness in the head.—Hard, painful and suppurating node in the

penis.—Burning pains in the genital parts.—Gleet.

Spasmodic laughing and crying, with asthma.—Hoarseness in the

morning, and speaking through the nose as from coryza.—Scraping and excoriation in the throat,

with accumulation of tenacious mucus.—Cough, with so viscid an expectoration that it can

scarcely be discharged.—Dry cough, produced by a tickling in the throat and in the chest.

Difficult and short respiration during manual labour.—Constrictive oppression of the

chest; everything seems to be too tight.—Stitches in the chest.

Beating of the heart, with inquietude, trembling, vertigo, nausea, and

headache.—Palpitation as if heart working in water.—Palpitation accompanies many

symptoms.—Visible palpitation of heart.

Sweat of a strong smell under the arm-pits.—Swelling of the glands of the

neck, with tensive and drawing pains.—Pain in the back, with heaviness after stooping.—Itching

of tip of coccyx.

Paralytic weakness and pains of dislocation in the joints of the arms and

• ▸hands.
• ▸—Sensation in the wrist-joint, as if sprained —Affections of wrists.
• ▸—Ganglion.
• ▸—Tension in

the shoulder-joints, as if the tendons were too short.—Sensation of paralysis, as from excessive

fatigue-—Tremor of the hands, with palpitation of the heart and oppressive anxiety.—Blunt

instruments (scissors) make deep impressions in the skin of the fingers.—Cramp-like drawing in

the joints of the hands.—Shooting pains in the joints of the hands on laying hold of

anything.—Want of strength in the hands, so that they allow the lightest objects to fall from

them.—Humid tetters on the back of the hand.—Perspiration in the arm-pits, smelling like onions.

Tingling and numbness in the legs, with inability to stand

upright.—Shootings in the joints of the knees and of the feet.—Strong tension in the calves of the

legs, and in the legs, as if the tendons were too short.—Cramps in the calves of the legs, in bed, in

the morning.—Miliary eruption in the legs.

• ▸Great weakness of all joints; clumsiness with her hands, drops things from hands.
• ▸Weariness of hands and feet.
• ▸Sweat in axillae; onion smell.
• ▸Tip of coccyx itches intolerably.
• ▸Moist eczema on back of hand.
• ▸Itching of feet and legs.
• ▸OEdema in joints after fracture.

• ▸Blunt instrument leave deep impression on the skin.
• ▸Urticaria on excitement, with rheumatic lameness, palpitation and diarrhoea (Dulc).
• ▸Itching on getting warm.
• ▸Eczema, moist; formation of thick crusts.
• ▸Pimples cover the entire body; scurvy; herpetic eruptions.
• ▸Pruritus ani.
• ▸Urticaria on waking in the morning, worse from bathing.
• ▸Pellagra.

Skin flabby; blunt instruments leave a deep impression in it.—Itching, esp. when the

body is warm, and of that kind which receives no relief from scratching. —Urticaria, covering

whole body.—Pimples and miliary eruption, with burning itching. —Oozing eruptions and with a

• ▸thick crust; in bends of elbows and knees.
• ▸—Humid tetters.
• ▸—Whitlows.
• ▸—Warts.
• ▸— Violent

shootings in corns.

Great sleepiness in the morning, and early in the evening.—Sleepiness after dinner

and early in the evening.—Nocturnal sleep, agitated by anxious and frightful dreams.

Chill after going to bed at night.—Shivering, with thirst, even near a fire, and at night

in bed.—Chilliness and heat, with thirst—Heat with thirst, anguish, agitation, and oppression of

the chest—Sweat in the morning, esp. on the chest.—In the evening, fever with shivering and

shuddering in the back, with drawing pains in the abdomen.

• ▸Coccyx, itching of.
• ▸Corns.
• ▸Cysts.
• ▸Diabetes.
• ▸Diarrhea.
• ▸Ear, eczema of.
• ▸Eczema.

• ▸Ganglion.
• ▸Gleet.
• ▸Heemorrhages.
• ▸Hemorrhagic diathesis.
• ▸Headache.
• ▸Heart, affections of.

• ▸Jaundice.
• ▸Joints, affections of.
• ▸Menstruation, disordered.
• ▸Metrorrhagia.
• ▸Ovaries, affections of.

• ▸Rheumatic affections.
• ▸Stammering.
• ▸Tongue, ulcerated.
• ▸Tumours.
• ▸Urticaria.
• ▸Warts.
• ▸Whitlow.

Wounds.

• ▸Compare: Calc.
• ▸, Rhus, Sep.
• ▸, Pho.
• ▸, Puls.
• ▸, Staph.
• ▸, Sul.
• ▸, Ver.
• ▸, Bell.
• ▸, Bry.
• ▸, Carbo v.
• ▸,

• ▸Caust.
• ▸, Kali c.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸, Merc.
• ▸, Nat.
• ▸m.
• ▸, Sil.
• ▸, Spi.
• ▸, Stront.
• ▸, Valer—Aur.
• ▸, Pul.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸, Stram.
• ▸(laughter

• ▸alternately with weeping); Ars.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸, Sul.
• ▸(sinking immediately after eating); Bufo (sensation as

• ▸if heart in water); Zn.
• ▸(< from wine); Coloc.
• ▸(colic > bending double); Am.
• ▸c.
• ▸(poisoning by

• ▸charcoal fumes); Stram.
• ▸(stammering); Ambra (hemorrhage between periods); Sec.
• ▸, Ust.
• ▸It has

cured where Rhus seemed indicated and failed. Antidoted by: Camph. It antidotes: Effects of Tar

• ▸applied locally.
• ▸Followed well by: Alum.
• ▸, Calc.
• ▸, Rhus, Sep.
• ▸Teste puts Bovist.
• ▸in his Sulphur

group.

Bovista antidotes tar applications. Suffocation from gas. After Rhus in chronic urticaria.

Compare: Calc; Rhus; Sepia; Cicuta.

Third to sixth potency.