Crocus Sativus

Crocus has three characteristics which clearly call for its use when met with.

The first is h¢morrhage from various parts (nose, uterus, &c.), when the blood is black, viscid,

clotting, forming itself into long black strings, hanging from the bleeding orifice. The second is a

peculiar sensation as if something alive were moving about in the abdomen or chest. This may be

a definite sensation, or it may be a hallucination or fixed idea. A curious circumstance in this

connection is the fact that Crocus has often been successfully given to pregnant women who

have complained of violent fStal movements, as well as in cases of imaginary pregnancy. The

remaining characteristic is in the mental sphere. It is a rapid alternation of mental conditions:

anger with violence rapidly followed by repentance; laughter quickly followed by tears. I once

cured with a few doses of Crocus a young artist who had become subject to violent outbursts of

rage in which he would take up a knife to throw at his mother, with whom he lived, and almost

immediately after would be abjectly repentant. The household was on the point of being broken

up when the trouble was completely removed by Crocus. Uncontrollable laughter is also in the

Crocus symptomatology. Hysterical laughter is one of the effects observed by the older

physicians. Teste cites from Murray the case of several children "who were seized with an

extraordinary laughing mania, from having smelled of leather bottles that had contained essence

of saffron." On one occasion, in hospital, I happened to see a young girl who was really

desperately ill with heart failure and valvular disease, in a fit of hysterical laughter. This made

me think of Crocus. The only definite sensation she complained of in the heart region was a

"jumping" sensation. Crocus 30 was given, and very soon she was able to lie down flat (after

having been propped up for weeks), and from that time she made a rapid recovery. Another

Crocus symptom is: Sensitive to music, involuntarily joins in on hearing any one sing. Stitches,

shocks, throbbings, broad thrusts, cuttings and jerkings are among the commoner sensations.

Twitchings of single sets of muscles (chorea). A warm sensation ascending to the heart,

impeding breathing and > by yawning is a peculiar symptom. Tingling, crawling, pricking and

itching are met with in the skin. Scarlet redness of the whole body, or scarlet spots on skin. (It is

a domestic remedy for "bringing out" the eruption of measles.) Painful suppuration of bruised

parts; old cicatrised wounds re-open and suppurate. Lipoma and encephaloma of scalp. Tumours

with ulceration and characteristic bleeding. The reputation of Crocus in the cure of tumours is

also an old one. It was used externally "to scatter indolent tumours and ecchymoses." Cooper has

given it new confirmation. He has given it in single doses of the R tincture in a case of malignant

disease of the side following extirpation of cancerous kidney, with the result of arrest of progress

after an initial aggravation, and complete relief of pain. The patient was a woman, who had

formerly had hémorrhage with dark clots at the periods and feeling of weight towards womb. She

had had also the sensation of something moving in the abdomen. Cooper agrees with Culpepper

• ▸in thinking Croc.
• ▸very similar to Calend.
• ▸in its action.
• ▸It is a vulnerary and corresponds to the

effects of blows (deafness; tumours, &c.). Crocus 1s especially suited to women and hysterical

men. The symptoms are < fasting; evening and night; during new and full moon; looking fixedly

at an object; during pregnancy; in a hot room; in hot weather. > By yawning (desire to take a

long breath, > by yawning); in open air (for which there is craving); after breakfast. Great thirst

for cold drinks.

• ▸Vacillating; pleasant mania; sings and laughs.
• ▸Happy and affectionate; then angry.
• ▸Sudden changes from hilarity to melancholy.
• ▸Vivid recollection from music heard (Lyc).

Great tendency to sadness, sometimes alternating with great gaiety and

joyousness.—Great inclination to laugh, to jest, and to sing, sometimes with excessive

• ▸weakness.
• ▸—Loquacious.
• ▸—Sings involuntarily, and then laughs.
• ▸—Immoderate, improper laughter;

changeable disposition —Frolic-some and jesting mania, with paleness of face, headache, and

obscuration of the eyes—Abandonment of free will—Choleric passion and violence, frequently

followed by prompt repentance.—Alternate austerity and mildness of character.—Forgetfulness

and distraction.—Quickness of memory.

Throbs, pulsates, during climacteric; worse during menses.

Stupefying cephalalgia, as during intoxication, with downcast eyes.—Giddiness, as if

intoxicated, in the forehead; in the room, but not in the open air.—Vertigo, with

fainting. —Confused vertigo on rising from a reclining posture —Vertigo when raising the head,

with heat of the whole body.—Cephalalgia above the eyes, with burning pain, sensation of

burning and aching in the eyes, esp. in the evening, by candle-light—Head heavy in the morning,

with aching at the vertex.—Drawing pain in the forehead, with nausea.—Semi-lateral pulsation in

the head, and in the face (1. side, extending into the eye).—Blows in the forehead and the

temples.—Sensation of looseness of the brain, during movement (as if it were tottering to and

fro).

• ▸Appearance as of electric sparks.
• ▸Must wipe eyes as if mucus or water were in them.
• ▸Feeling in eyes as after violent weeping.
• ▸Sensation as if she had been looking through too sharp spectacles.
• ▸Eyes feel as if in smoke.
• ▸Pupils enlarged and react slowly.
• ▸Lids heavy.
• ▸Ciliary neuralgia, pain from eyes to top of head.
• ▸Sensation as if cold air was rushing through eye (Fluor ac; Syph).
• ▸Asthenopia with extreme photophobia.
• ▸Threatened glaucoma; embolism of arteria centralis retinal.

Itching in the eyelids.—Tingling in the eyebrows.—Pressure, pain as from excoriation,

and sensation of burning in the eyes, and in the eyelids, esp. on closing them, and or, reading, or

in the evening by candle-light.—Sensation of swelling in the eyes, as from much

• ▸weeping.
• ▸—Dryness of the eyes.
• ▸—Lachrymation on reading.
• ▸—A quantity of tears rush from the

dim eyes as soon as he begins to read.—Lachrymation in the room; not in the open air.—Heating

and lancinating pains in the eyes after surgical operations.—Nocturnal agglutination of the

eyelids.—Visible quivering of the eyelids.—Heaviness and cramp-like contractions of the

eyelids —Nocturnal cramps in the eyelids.—Constant winking of the eyes (inclination to wipe the

eyes, as if a pellicle of gum were drawn over them).—Pupils dilated Constant necessity to rub

the eyes.—Confused sight, as when looking through a veil, esp. in the evening, when reading by

candlelight——When reading, the white paper seems of a pale rose colour.—Sparkling before the

eyes.—Sudden flashes like electric sparks (during the day).

Otalgia, similar to a cramp.—Tinkling in the ears, in the evening, after lying

down.—Buzzing in the ears with hardness of hearing, esp. on stooping.

Epistaxis. Dark, stringy, clotted. Strings of dark blood hanging down the nose.

Epistaxis of black and viscid blood, often only from one nostril at a time; with cold

perspiration on the forehead, and occasional fainting —Violent and frequent sneezing.

Face of an earthy colour.—Redness and paleness, alternately, in the

face.—Circumscribed, burning red spots on the face —Burning heat in the face, esp. in the

morning.—Lips cracked and ulcerated.—Pulsation on one side of the face.

Scraping and roughness in the mouth.—Accumulation of water in the

mouth.—Tongue moist, and charged with a white coating, with erection of the papill¢é —Unusual

warmth in the mouth.

Sore throat as if caused by elongation of the uvula, or as if there were a plug in the

throat, during deglutition, and at other times.—Scraping and roughness in the throat (in the

evening before and after, but not during the time he takes his food).

Nauseating, acid, sweetish taste —Nausea, disappearing in the open air.—Sweet or

bitter taste in the bottom of the gullet—Constant thirst in the evening, with uneasiness in the

abdomen after drinking. —Absence of appetite, with sensation off fulness, however little be eaten.

Empty risings, while fasting in the morning. —Pyrosis after eating with a good

appetite —Heartburn after eating —Qualmishness, uneasiness, and sensation of oppression, in the

epigastrium.—Burning pain in the stomach.—Borborygmi, and fermentation in the

epigastrium.—Great sinking sensation at epigastrium.—Drawing in the pit of the stomach, back

and forth, and up and down.—Some violent stitches in pit of stomach.

• ▸Obstinate constipation due to portal stagnation.
• ▸Constipation in infants.
• ▸Crawling and stitches in anus.
• ▸Sensation of something alive in abdomen, stomach, etc. , especially on left side (Calend).
• ▸Abdomen swollen, feeling of something heavy.

Abdomen inflated, with sensation of fulness.—Distension of the stomach and

abdomen (the stomach feels distended in the morning before eating anything).—Cramp-like pains

in the abdomen.—Pinchings in the abdomen after drinking (water).—Pains in the abdomen from

taking cold.—Movements in the abdomen, stomach, pit of the stomach, arms, and other parts of

• ▸the body, as of something alive hopping about.
• ▸——Shocks above |.
• ▸hypochondrium.
• ▸—Sensation of

heaviness in the inguinal region.—Sensation of heaviness in the abdomen, with pressing towards

the uterus.

Itching and tingling in the anus —Creeping in the anus, as from

ascarides.—Obtuse shooting in the side, and above the anus.—Stitches and itching at the anus

(stitch extending from the anus through the small of the back into the left groin, increasing

during an inspiration).

• ▸Threatened abortion, especially when haemorrhage is dark and stringy.
• ▸Urging of blood to genitals.
• ▸Menses dark, viscid, too frequent and copious, black and slimy.
• ▸Uterine haemorrhage; clots with long strings; worse from least movement.
• ▸Jerking pain in interior of left breast, as if drawn toward back by means of thread (Crot tig).
• ▸A bounding feeling, as if something alive in right breast.

Sensation of something living and moving in the abdomen;

abdomen swollen; (these symptoms, when occurring in females, as they often do at the change of

life and at other times, may lead to the erroneous idea of pregnancy).—Urging of blood towards

the genital parts, as if the menses were commencing.—Catamenia too frequent and

copious.—Catamenia painful—Metrorrhagia of black and slimy blood.—Flow of blood, during

the new and full moon.—Hémorrhage from the uterus (during the least movement); blood viscid,

black, smelling badly (miscarriage third month).—Threatened abortion, esp. where there is a

hémorrhage of dark, stringy blood.—Post-partum hémorrhage.

Wheezy cough, with frothy expectoration, containing threads like fine twine; worse, lying down. Breath has offensive, sickly smell. Feeling as if the uvula is elongated in hysterical patients.

Violent dry, shaking cough, much mitigated by passing the hand over

• ▸the epigastrium.
• ▸—Cough, with spitting of blood.
• ▸—Disagreeably smelling breath.
• ▸—Difficulty of

respiration.—Inclination to breathe deeply, occasioned by a sensation of heaviness about the

heart—Oppression of the chest, with desire to draw a long breath; > by yawning.—On breathing,

a sensation is felt as from the vapour of sulphur in the throat.

Shootings in the chest and esp. in the sides—Movements, as if something alive were

hopping in the chest—Shocks in the chest, which suspend respiration.—Peculiar jerking pains in

interior of |. breast (chest) as if drawn towards the back by a thread.

Sensation of heat, which ascends to the heart, with anxiety and difficulty of

respiration, mitigated by yawnings.—Sensation of heaviness at the heart—Sensation of great

emptiness in precordial region.—Drawing in precordial region extending to stomach.—Stitches

beneath heart, < on inspiration —Frequent palpitation.—Anxiety at heart, with sense of weakness

extending thence through abdomen to soles of feet.

Sudden feeling of coldness in back as if cold water were thrown over him; icy-cold extremities.

Sensation of stiffness in the neck during movement.—External swelling of

the neck.—Pulling in the loins, with pains in the groins.—Sensation of coldness in the back.

Pain in the shoulder-joint, on moving the arms, as if it were out of joint, or

on the point of being dislocated; cracking —Numbness of the arms and of the hands, with

• ▸immobility, esp.
• ▸at night, during sleep.
• ▸—Digging pulling in the forearms.
• ▸—Heaviness and pain, as

from a bruise in the forearms, after any slight movement of them.—Burning pricking, and tension

in the tips of the fingers, as from stagnation of the blood, after a walk in the open air—Chilblains

in the hands, and in the fingers.

Sensation of weakness in the thighs, when seated.—Violent cracking of the

hip-joint, of the knee-joint (when stooping).—Nocturnal tearing in the leg, with uneasiness in that

part.—Pain, as from a bruise, in the calves of the legs.—Fatigue in the soles of the feet (from

standing), with burning pain and tingling —Chilblains on the toes.

24. Generalities Movements, as of something alive (hopping and jumping) in various parts of

the body.—Tingling in different parts of the body.—Convulsive attacks, like chorea (every seven

days), with laughter, dancing and leaping, alternately with violent paroxysms of whooping-

cough.—Sensation of relaxation and bending in the joints—Numbness of some of the limbs, at

night, during sleep —Amelioration of symptoms in the open air; several of them appear at night,

and are generally aggravated in the morning.—Ebullition of blood, sometimes throughout the

• ▸body.
• ▸—Discharge of a black viscid blood from different organs.
• ▸—Epistaxis.
• ▸—Dark stringy blood

from the nose; mucous blood from the same.—Cough with bloody (dark)

expectoration.—Heaviness and failing of the limbs, after light exercise —Striking alternation of

the most opposite, physical, and mental symptoms.—Symptoms generally appear on the 1.

side.—Excessive general weakness, with fainting fits, during movement.—Desire for open

air.—Great depression in the morning. —Trembling of all the limbs.

• ▸Spasmodic contractions and twitchings of single set of muscles.
• ▸Chorea and hysteria, with great alterations of feeling.
• ▸Whole upper extremity fall asleep.
• ▸Cracking in hip-joint and knees.
• ▸Weakness in knees and legs.
• ▸Pain in ankles and soles.

Pricking, crawling, burning, and tingling in skin.—Red (scarlet) colour of the

body.—Chilblains.—Suppuration, painful, of old wounds (old cicatrised wounds open again and

suppurate).

Continuous yawning and desire to sleep.—Great inclination to sleep in the day, esp.

after a meal, sometimes in the evening.—Sings while sleeping.—Drowsiness, with eyes dull and

glassy.—Cries, and starts, while sleeping.—Frightful, or gay and pleasant dreams.

Pulse accelerated; feverish.—Chill in the afternoon, growing worse in the evening,

with chilliness extending from the back into the legs, with trembling.—During the chill (and

heat), thirst —Chilliness, only of the back part of the body.—Flushes of internal heat, with

pricking and tingling of the skin—Heat, mostly of the head and face, with paleness of the cheeks

and thirst.—Perspiration very little, and only at night; cold and debilitating. —Perspiration only on

the lower part of the body.

• ▸Abortion, threatened.
• ▸After-pains.
• ▸Anger.
• ▸Asthenopia.
• ▸Blepharospasm.
• ▸Brain,

• ▸congestion of.
• ▸Chorea.
• ▸Dysmenia.
• ▸Fainting.
• ▸Gastric affections.
• ▸Hémoptysis.
• ▸Hémorrhages.

• ▸Headache.
• ▸Heart, affections of.
• ▸Hysteria.
• ▸Lachrymation.
• ▸Laughter.
• ▸Leucorrhsa.
• ▸Mania.

• ▸Menstruation, profuse.
• ▸Metrorrhagia.
• ▸Nose, bleeding of.
• ▸Operations, effects of, Ophthalmia.

• ▸Pregnancy, imaginary; affections of.
• ▸Tumours.
• ▸Ulceration.
• ▸Wounds.

Crocus should be studied along with the other Iridace¢, the Alliaceé and the Liliace¢.

• ▸It is antidoted by: Acon.
• ▸, Bell.
• ▸, Op.
• ▸Compatible: Chi.
• ▸, Nux, Puls.
• ▸, Sul.
• ▸Compare: Plat.
• ▸in dark or

black clotted flow; Croton (pain through left chest to back); Staph. (> by yawning); Fluor. ac.

(sensation of cold wind blowing across eyes); Codein (twitching of muscles, especially of

eyeballs); Lach. (pains in eye to top of head); Tarent. (contractions of single groups of muscles);

• ▸Calc.
• ▸, Ipec.
• ▸, Ign.
• ▸Tarent.
• ▸(hysteria hearing music wants to join in.
• ▸—In Tarent.
• ▸music subsequently

• ▸>in Croc.
• ▸it does not).
• ▸Wants to jump (Tarent.
• ▸, Stram.
• ▸, Sticta, Asar.
• ▸, Agar.
• ▸); wants to kiss, Agar.

• ▸In miscarriage at third month, Sabi.
• ▸, Kreas.
• ▸In violent movements of fStus, Op.
• ▸, Sil.
• ▸, Thu.
• ▸, Sul.
• ▸;

in heat in heart, Rhod., Lachn., Op.

Antidote: Opium; Bell.

Compare: Ipec; Trillium; Plat; China; Sabina.

Tincture, to thirtieth attenuation.