Croton Tiglium

Croton oil is best known in its uses as a powerful purgative, and as an irritant

of the skin. The characteristic stool of Croton is a sudden evacuation in one gush, like a shot;

followed by great prostration. Colic before stool; constant urging; < from eating and drinking

and from every movement. The evacuation is yellowish or yellowish green. On the skin Croton

produces erythema, erysipelas, eczema, herpes pustules. The antidote to Croton is Ant. tart.

Croton antidotes Rhus tox. Some peculiar sensations are: produced by Croton: "As if the skin

were hide-bound", (Also mentally hide-bound; can't think outside of himself.) "As of a string

pulling from one part to another; from eyeball to back of head; from nipple to back with pain in

nipple when the child nurses." "As if a plug were forcing outwards at anus." Cutting, sticking,

stinging, stitching pains and burning stitches. Writhing in transverse colon. Guernsey gives the

skin indications thus: "In any skin disease which itches very much, but the patient cannot bear to

scratch very hard as it hurts; a very slight scratch, a mere rub suffices to allay the itching.

Erysipelas that itches exceedingly." He also gives: "Otorrhcea when there is much itching."

Teste, who was among the first to use Croton homeceopathically, gives a very interesting account

of it. He quotes Trousseau and Pidoux as saying that it often happens that eruptions are

developed on parts not touched by the remedy, in those who have been engaged in making

Croton inunctions on patients. The face and the scrotum especially have been thus attacked. The

itching which it causes, says Teste, is at first more tingling than burning (the contrary taking

place with Rhus). The itching changes to burning (like the itching of Rhus) if it is taken in large

doses or applied externally. The eruptions in which he succeeded were: urticaria; large copper-

coloured spots almost like liver-spots: small red blotches, not very apparent, in thighs, abdomen,

and genitals, of fifteen years' standing-all accompanied with intolerable itching. Two remarkable

cases are recorded by Teste. A delicate, cachectic, psoric girl of four had suffered for two years

without interruption from a fetid discharge from the nose, less in winter more in summer. Before

this she had a vesicular eruption on chest and neck, which disappeared of itself, being followed

• ▸in three or four days by the discharge.
• ▸After the failure of Su/.
• ▸, Merc.
• ▸sol.
• ▸, Calc.
• ▸, on the

indication of the previous eruption Teste gave Croton, and in less than a fortnight the disease lost

three-fourths of its intensity, although it was in mid-summer. Six months completed the cure, the

• ▸only other remedies given during the time being Lob.
• ▸i.
• ▸, and Kreas.
• ▸The other case was that of a

man of forty, very fleshy, who for fifteen years had been subject to attacks of gout returning

every spring, except on two occasions when a most fatiguing and obstinate exanthem appeared

instead. This consisted in an intense redness of the whole body, accompanied with a burning

itching, especially in the hollow of the hands, at the chest, and behind the ears. These parts were

the seat of a yellowish, plastic exudation, emanating from a multitude of small vesicles in close

contact with each other, which were only distinctly perceived in places where they were less

numerous, and where a greater degree of resistance on the part of the epidermis imparted to them

a certain persistence. Each time this eruption broke out it lasted three months in spite of

purgatives and the baths of Baréges and Aix les Bains. When Teste saw the patient he had

neither gout nor eczema, but a dry, racking, almost convulsive and unceasing cough. Skin rather

hot, thirst, a little headache, heat in chest, no dyspnoea. Sometimes, especially in the evening, but

only for a few days, he showed a tendency to syncope. At the end of three weeks, having

received no benefit from Teste's treatment, the patient took of his own accord three

tablespoonfuls of the "Syrup of White Poppy," at bedtime. The cough ceased entirely for some

hours, and then returned in its old intensity. But during the intermission the malady had come out

on the skin, and at daybreak the patient found himself covered from head to foot with his old

horrible eczema. He was almost unrecognisable, and in a state of the deepest anxiety and despair.

He expected three or four months of it. Teste now gave Croton. The itching disappeared the

same day. Within five or six days there remained not a trace of either cough or eruption. As the

patient removed from Paris, Teste was not able to follow the case in subsequent years. Conrad

• ▸Wesselhceft cured a case of proctalgia in a woman of thirty with Crot.
• ▸tig.
• ▸3x.
• ▸The attacks came

on after stool, lasting half a day, and preventing her from fulfilling her duties of teacher. There

were no piles, only sensitiveness of rectum to touch. He was led to the remedy by having

previously had another patient who suffered from a similar pain after using Croton pills; pain in

the rectum came on with extreme intensity after straining at stool; and the patient (also a woman)

was in agony for three hours afterwards, with frequent tenesmus. The pills were stopped and Nux

v. given, and she was well in a week. The eye symptoms of Croton are very strongly marked.

Purulent ophthalmia, ulceration, and hypopion have been cured by it. Many of the symptoms of

Croton spread from below upwards. Touch, pressure and motion <. < When sitting or crouching.

Open air < dizziness and faintness. Drinking cold water while heated = complete loss of voice.

• ▸Hot milk < colic.
• ▸Diarrhoea is < in summer.
• ▸Many symptoms are < at night.
• ▸> After sleep.

Sadness, sometimes with dislike to labour; or else with anxiety, and displeasure

• ▸conceming everything.
• ▸—Frequent melancholy.
• ▸—A gitation.
• ▸—Grumbling, discontented

humour.—Dislike to labour.—Nothing is desired but loitering, and to avoid all serious

undertakings. —Disordered aspect, with eyes haggard, sparkling —Weakness of memory.—Feeling

as though one cannot think outside of himself, "feels all pent up" inside, and no chance for the

thoughts to flow out.

Pressing pain in forehead, especially orbits.

Head confused: on rising, as if by a cloud, with dulness and pressure in the forehead in

the forehead, with pressure and heaviness; with pressure in the temples in the occiput, sometimes

as though it were held in a vice (on I. side), with heaviness in the head, and digging in the eyes,

with fulness, cloudiness, and heaviness in the forehead, esp. on r. side, with pressure, proceeding

downwards from the occiput to the part underneath the ear, with lancinations.—Giddiness in the

head, as after spirituous liquors.—Vertigo with dulness of the head, pale complexion, debility and

nausea; < in the open air.—Vertigo: with headache; with heaviness of the head, so as to cause

falling while standing upright; hardly permitting a sitting posture, esp. on raising the eyes; with

bewilderment of the head until supper-time; on walking in the open air; esp. on the r. side, with

aching in the eye; in the sinciput, with draggings across the nose to the forehead.—Headache; <

in the morning.—Fulness in the head, with numbness and weight in the forehead, every day, and

with great heaviness, which prevents reading; with sensation of vertigo and pressure in the

forehead.—Pressure in the head; in the r. temple and the side of the forehead; in the sinciput, and

sometimes chiefly on the |. side; or else with violent pains, throbbings, and tension proceeding

from the forehead, with bewilderment of the whole head, < after a meal——Numbness in the

orbits, < within doors and towards night; above all in the air.—Pressure at the occiput.—Tension

at the sinciput, with pressure and dartings.—Squeezing in the temples.—Tearings, ascending

towards the vertex; in the forehead, extending to r. temple, where they become

• ▸lancinations.
• ▸—Lancinations in forehead, above r.
• ▸eye; in 1.
• ▸temple; between the occiput and the

nape of the neck.—Congestion in the head, proceeding from the abdomen, with hot skin and

perspiration.—Externally, pricking in the teguments of the head; tingling at the occiput; jerking

of the head; burning at the temple, as by live coals; sensitiveness of the teguments of the head:

the hat gives pain.

• ▸Granular lids; pustules of cornea.
• ▸Red and raw appearance.
• ▸Feel drawn backward.
• ▸Eruptions around eyes.
• ▸Tensive pain above right orbit.

• ▸Lancinations, esp.
• ▸in 1.
• ▸eye; jerkings and dartings in the angle of the 1.
• ▸eye; with

frequent contractions and jerking of the whole eye; contractive pains in the 1. eyelids, esp.

towards the internal angle.—Sensation as of a string pulling eyeball back into head.—Stinging in

the eyeball. —Itching of the eyelids —Irritation of the conjunctiva.—Inflammatory redness of the 1.

conjunctiva.—Ulceration of the conjunctiva, contraction of the pupil, and profuse lachrymation

and dimness of the cornea.—Hypopion.—Inflammation of the eye, in which a drop of oil has been

introduced, extending over the whole side of the face —Burning pain in the inflamed eye, with

burning in the ear, vertigo, and fainting —CEdematous swelling of the eyelids.—Small vesicles

round the eye.—Swelling of a subcutaneous gland below the inferior r. eyelid, with redness of the

• ▸skin.
• ▸—Much quivering of the eyelids.
• ▸—Lachrymation.
• ▸—Sight bedimmed, as though crossed by a

fog or by smoke; cloud before the weak eye; before both; the sight is lost, sometimes as by

vertigo (in a room), or else by heaviness and weakness of the eyes.

Forcing pain in the |. ear; sometimes spasmodic and deeply seated.—Dull aching in the

direction of the two auditory ducts ——Pressure and revolving sensation towards the orifice of the

• ▸ear, with confusion of the head.
• ▸—Lancinations below |.
• ▸ear—Hardness of hearing of r.
• ▸ear.
• ▸—Loss

of hearing for a short time.—Noise in the ear.

Inflammation of the nose, and of the whole face.—Burning in the nostrils—Eruption on

the septum, with redness of the part, pain on touching it, and small yellow vesicles, which, at a

later period, form crusts, and at last desquamate.—Internal irritation of the nose; dryness;

cessation of respiration by the nose.—Increase of nasal secretion; thin coryza.

Paleness and coldness of the face.—Increased heat, sometimes burning, esp. in the

cheeks; or else over the whole face, remaining several days.—Inflammation of the face and of the

nose; swelling of the face; eruption of pimples.—Burning in the lips; sometimes in the

commissures, principally with swelling of the external edges; tension in the commissures of the

lips; dryness of the lips, sometimes with chaps, or else experienced chiefly in the evening, with

tension.—Dragging in the |. maxillary articulation; swelling of one gland, which is painful on

being touched.

The interior of the mouth as if burnt; heat within; dryness, with scraping in the

throat—Accumulation of water, which sometimes escapes at the corners of the

mouth.—Augmented secretion of saliva, with sensation of heat in the mouth—Frequent

salivation.—Irritation of the salivary glands, causing frequent expectoration, occasioning a

sensation of burning and an acridity, with rancid taste in the throat, which cease only after

experiencing symptoms in the rectum akin to those which follow an evacuation.—Tongue loaded

with a white coating.—Sensitiveness of the tip of the tongue —Swelling of the palate; tickling,

scraping, and burning at the junction of the soft and solid parts.

In a hollow molar, pain, as of excoriation, while eating.—Gums bleed, when cleaning

the teeth; interior swelling, sometimes painful.

Sensation of a peg, or a morsel, in, the throat, which cannot be swallowed.—Pulling

in the throat.—Scraping, disagreeable taste in the fauces.—Scraping in the throat, which provokes

hawking.—Burning in the fauces and pharynx.—Burning in the gullet and the larynx, preceded by

a sensation of roughness, followed by burning; removed on taking a breath.—Burning in the

throat, as by pepper; continuous, with constriction; much > after a short sleep; > during

inspiration, < during expiration; heat in the throat and the cesophagus, extending into the

stomach.—Uvula red and elongated. —Painful swelling of sub-maxillary glands and

tonsils—Dryness of the gullet, with irritation, as though it were inflamed; with difficulty in

swallowing; with expectoration of mucus, which is acid, like vinegar—Copious expectoration of

viscid mucus, with an acid taste.

Taste: of almonds; sickly, with painful tingling at the tip of the tongue;

clammy, the tongue being charged with coating; sweet-bitter, and as though the tip of the tongue

were acted upon by electricity; bitter; acid, acrid, ascending from the stomach.—Appetite

diminished, as well as thirst; no appetite; loathing; repugnance to beer; inability to eat, even milk

porridge, because of loathing and nausea; after taking milk, great repugnance and nausea, with

inclination to vomit.—A fter a meal, pain in the abdomen.

Risings, with nausea, sometimes to a greater extent after drinking, or else with

prostration of strength; with loathing.—Regurgitations: of water; of bile, in the

evening.—Hiccough.—Excessive nausea, with vanishing of sight, sweat on the forehead,

distension of the abdomen, excessive gagging, vertigo; < after drinking. —Nausea, and inclination

to vomit; frequently; with continuous loathing and uneasiness; with disgust; continual, with

coldness, regurgitation of water with salivation; with vertigo and want of appetite; which hardly

permits writing; in the abdomen, with retching; frequent efforts to vomit, with accumulation of

water in the mouth.—Vomiting: with nausea; of coffee taken; of mucus, with bitterness in the

mouth; of a yellowish liquid, having the smell of oil, and a smooth taste like oil; after a meal, of

water, of mucus, and of bread, with continual nausea; bitter in the evening, of aliments taken at

supper, preceded by nausea, fulness, and pressure of the stomach, followed by sweat upon the

face; at night, of an acid liquid, of an acrid smell, preceded by nausea; violent, of aliments taken

into the stomach, on walking in the open air (after great nausea), or else of water following

nausea, < after a slice of bread and butter; violent, sudden, of a frothy water, yellowish white,

with spasmodic efforts; vomiting of bile——Fulness: with painful sensitiveness of the stomach;

aching, sometimes with nausea and want of appetite-—Painful sensitiveness of the stomach; to

the touch; with sensation of emptiness and nausea, and inclination to vomit, until the

afternoon.—Pressure at the stomach: with movement in the abdomen; with tickling; with anguish;

with uneasiness in the abdomen; with squeezing, anguish, and excessive uneasiness, or else

accompanied by tension.—Pressure in the pit of stomach.—Contractions in the stomach, with

pressure in the pit, and discharge of water from the eyes and nose; spasmodic movements as if

about to vomit, with nausea; retraction of the upper part of the stomach.—Scraping in the

stomach; burning, sometimes as if by hot coals; burning and heat in the pit of the stomach;

borborygmi, and weight upon the chest.

In the spleen: lancinations; aching.—Violent pains in the abdomen and the

stomach, the lower portion of the abdomen affected; and painful abdominal symptoms >, after

taking milk porridge; constant pain in the abdomen, on touching the navel, with noise in the

abdomen, and bellyache; pain in the umbilical region and lower part of the abdomen; the pains in

the umbilical region are < by the touch, or on lying down, on which occasion they sometimes

extend to the anus, which then protrudes.—Colic in the umbilical region, sometimes more

particularly in the evening, and with inflation of the abdomen, followed by an evacuation.—Pain

as if the intestines were twisted in the umbilical region, followed by tearings in the 1.

side.—Violent spasmodic pains in the abdomen, more violent when in a crouching posture (as

when at stool), than when walking or standing upright.—Tension in the abdomen: between the

navel and the pit of the stomach; painful and spasmodic in the upper part of the abdomen, esp. on

being seated; violent, with inflation of the whole abdomen, evacuation, emission of fetid wind,

and great aggravation of all the symptoms on being seated; in the umbilical region on being

seated, with pressure in the anus.—Pressure in the abdomen: on going out, ascending towards the

stomach, with sudden nausea, and with pinchings and tension at the navel; above the navel with

squeezing.—Pinching in the abdomen: with borborygmi; in the umbilical region, sometimes more

particularly while walking; with cuttings, sometimes chiefly in the umbilical region and I. side of

abdomen; with pressure on the anus; violent on awaking, with rumbling in the abdomen soon

after, emission of fetid wind, with great urging to go to stool, and evacuation with abdominal

cuttings and spasms.—Cutting pains, with pinching, in the transverse colon, renewed after every

evacuation; commencing at the navel, almost stopping respiration, and causing a lateral bending

of the body; above the navel, as with knives, disappearing after an evacuation; in the umbilical

region and the intestines at the same time, or else followed by an evacuation; below the stomach,

in the abdomen.—Tearings in the abdomen during a meal; in the r. side of the abdomen, with

incisive pains below the stomach; in the colon; in umbilical region after a meal.—Lancinations in

the abdomen: above the navel; to the |. of the navel; in the czecum; in the region of the sigmoid

flexure.—Excoriating pains in the inferior part of the abdomen, while coughing.—Sensation as if

• ▸tepid water were moving in the intestines, esp.
• ▸on the |.
• ▸side.
• ▸-—Sensation of coldness in

abdomen.—Heaviness: in the superior part of the abdomen, with nausea; in the lower part, with

retraction of the abdomen.—Fulness in the abdomen: with borborygmi and colic; with pinching;

with tension and colic in the umbilical region.—Inflation of the abdomen every day, with tension

and borborygmi, < while walking.—Movement in the abdomen; fluctuation as if water were

• ▸there; borborygmi, sometimes on the 1.
• ▸side; rumbling, esp.
• ▸in the small intestines.
• ▸—Externally,

tingling heat in the teguments of the abdomen.—Tension and pain in the groins—Emission of

wind: before a stool; with borborygmi in the abdomen; frequent, sometimes with lancinations, or

else such as precede a soft stool; fetid wind.

Copious watery stools, with much urging; always forcibly shot out, with gurgling in intestines; worse, drinking the least quantity, or even while eating. Constant urging to stool, followed by sudden evacuation. Swashing sensation in intestines.

Urgent inclination to go to stool: with rumbling and pinching in the

abdomen; as from heat and agitation in the abdomen; with pressure on the anus, as in diarrhoea;

in the morning in bed, and after getting up, stool, followed by excoriating pain in the anus;

sudden, immediately after rising or commencing exercise; so pressing that the closet cannot be

reached soon enough.—Stools: soft, like pap, sometimes with burning at the anus; viscid, of good

consistence, mucous, aqueous, sometimes copious and frequent, even at night, or else with

lancinations in the anus; liquid, with scraping at the anus; yellow, loose, sometimes after

vomiting, or else following sweat, mucous, with tenesmus; dark green, liquid, followed by long-

continued debility; now firm, afterwards bilious mucous, and finally aqueous; brown, pap-like,

with mucus, or else followed by borborygmi in the 1. side: greyish-green, dirty brown, quick, and

ejected by one effort—Stool as soon as he drinks (the child has a stool and colic as soon as it

nurses).—A fter taking coffee, the stools (frequent) cease.—After the stool, drawings and pressure

in the upper part of the abdomen, and the umbilical region.—Ejection of ascarides, and of the

teenia solium.—Pressure and tenesmus in the rectum, with cutting pains going round it on being

seated.—In the anus: burning, which sometimes does not permit the patient to remain seated, with

swelling of the surrounding parts, or with pulsations and lancinations; scraping after a stool;

pains of excoriation and burning after taking exercise, contractive and lancinating pains in

walking; pain as if a peg were endeavouring to pass out; pain of excoriation after the stool, with

prolapsus ani, and inclination to go to stool, and on compressing the abdomen, pressure on the

anus extending to the genital parts and the glans; with this, much anguish, oppression, sweat on

the forehead, and nausea, with loss of sight and hearing; rest soothes the pains.

In the r. renal region, violent lancinations, which cut short

respiration.—Inclination to urinate, sometimes immediately after having made water; increased

emission, sometimes with frequency, even every half-hour.—Urine: yellow, copious; cloud in the

urine, which is sometimes turbid; after the cloud has disappeared, brown crystallisations float in

its place; urine pale, frothy, in the morning; pale, with white sediment, in the daytime; orange-

yellow pale at night, a little turbid and fleecy at the bottom; high-coloured, fiery-red, and very

fleecy; night and morning; blood-red, depositing much mucus at the bottom, which, on being

disturbed, forms elongating threads; thick sediment in the urine, afterwards urine with a streaked

coating.—When urinating, heat in the urethra, or in the glans.

Night urine foaming; dark orange color; turbid on standing; greasy particles floating on top. Day urine is pale, with white sediment.

Catamenia too scanty, or altogether suppressed, with dyspnoea and

palpitation of the heart, esp. on going to bed.—Pain and stitches through the breasts into the

chest, and extending to the back, as soon as the child begins to nurse.

Penis painful, with redness of the glans, and lancinations in the

• ▸urethra.
• ▸—Pullings in the |.
• ▸spermatic cord, hindering walking.
• ▸—L.
• ▸testicle retracted, the r.

pendant, and flaccid. —Tetter-like eruption on the scrotum.—Erections.

Hoarseness.—Voice hoarse, sometimes as from a cold, or with

necessity for hawking.—Tickling in the larynx.—Secretion and accumulation of rattling mucus in

the larynx, sometimes increased, with tickling, or chiefly in the evening.—Bronchial

• ▸catarrh.
• ▸—Pressure on the larynx, esp.
• ▸on |.
• ▸side.
• ▸—Cough: with frequent hawking; continual,

sometimes with mucus in the bronchia, difficult to be detached, with expectoration of mucus,

esp. in the morning, or else in the evening, and with pressure on the chest.—Mucus continuing in

the lungs, with dyspnoea and wheezing on breathing deeply.—When coughing, soreness in the

abdomen.

• ▸Drawing-pain through the left chest into the back. Asthma, with cough; cannot expand the chest.
• ▸Nursing women; every suck the child gives produces pain from nipple back.
• ▸Inflamed breasts.
• ▸Cough; as soon as he touches the pillow must get up.
• ▸Sensitive to deep breathing.

Respiration impeded by aching in the abdomen: difficult, with oppression;

sometimes with anguish.—Respiration laboured sometimes with fulness and anguish in the

chest.—Respiration short, after a stool —Dyspnoea aggravated on going up stairs.—Chest painful

on pressing upon it.—Fulness and painful sensitiveness of the two cavities, with burning

lancinations on |. side, and towards the shoulder-blades, or else with pressure and burning on r.

side, and on |.—Particular uneasiness in the chest and abdomen.—Feeling of emptiness in the

chest.—Pressure on the chest: in breathing deeply; violent in the evening; deep in the middle of

• ▸the chest.
• ▸—Lancinations in the chest: below, to r.
• ▸, during in inspiration; sometimes on I.
• ▸side, esp.

• ▸in the evening.
• ▸—Pulsation, backwards from the r.
• ▸side.
• ▸—Burning in the chest, sometimes violent,

extending to the intestines.

Palpitation of the heart: sometimes violent, such as may be felt externally; during

coition; after a meal, esp. on lying down; sudden throbbing in the region of the

• ▸aorta.
• ▸—Palpitation of the heart, with difficulty of breathing, esp.
• ▸on going up stairs.
• ▸—Frequent

lancinations in the region of the heart, sometimes more esp. during inspiration; frequent jerkings

towards the heart; the I. ventricle of the heart is chiefly affected Externally, pulsation, and

throbbing-bubbling in (r.) side of chest; tearing pains.

In the cervical vertebrze, pressure and pulling.—In the lumbar region,

tingling as from insects.—Lancinations in r. kidney.

Aching in r. shoulder, lancinations in |.—In the arms, heaviness and

lassitude; tensive, contusive pain; sensation of heaviness and weariness; tearing in r. arm.—In 1.

elbow, perforating sensation in the joint.—In r. forearm, pulling, tension, pressure and contusive

• ▸pain; tearing in |.
• ▸fore-arm; pullings in the r.
• ▸hand.
• ▸—In the fingers of 1.
• ▸hand, jerkings; pullings

and tearings in the middle fingers of 1. hand; digging pains in the last phalanges of the fingers.

In |. coxo-femoral articulation, tensive pain, felt esp. when rising from a

sitting posture; pullings and swellings in the buttocks, and in the anus, after taking exercise.—In

the legs, lassitude and heaviness.—In the thighs, tension and contusive pain; itching burning in I.

leg, also sensation of paralysis.—Digging and tearing in the knees; tension and pricking; arthritic

digging.—In |. leg, pricking; tearing; jerking during after-dinner sleep; hot itching of r.

tibia—Weight and aching in the articulation of the r. foot; lancinations in both feet, sometimes as

if they were dislocated; jerking and tearing in the sole of the 1. foot—In the toes, lancinations and

tearing, esp. in the great toes.

• ▸24.
• ▸Generalities—General lassitude and depression.
• ▸—Pains in the limbs.
• ▸—General uneasiness,

ill-feeling, with lassitude, followed by inclination to sleep, < on lying down, with loss of sight

and hearing; drops of sweat on the forehead, and a feeling of the impossibility of reaching the

nearest house, with vertigo, paleness of face, lassitude and depression, striving to reach the open

air, where, however, the malady is increased.—Sensation as if the body were shattered,

sometimes with frequent anxiety—Sensation of numbness over the whole body.—Great

excitement throughout the whole body.—General trembling.—Weakness, sometimes attended by

uneasiness, or else by depression.—Fainting fits Symptoms > during sleep.

• ▸Feels hide-bound. Intense itching; but scratching is painful.
• ▸Pustular eruption, especially on face and genitals, with fearful itching, followed by painful burning.
• ▸Vesicles; confluent oozing.
• ▸Vesicular erysipelas, itching exceedingly.
• ▸Herpes zoster; stinging, smarting pains of the eruption.

Heat, esp. of the hands, with swelled veins.—Itching, followed by burning pain—The

patient can't bear to scratch very hard as it hurts; a very slight scratch, a mere rub suffices to allay

the itching. —Erysipelas that itches exceedingly.—Vesicular inflammation (scarlet redness) of the

skin.—Redness, warmth, stinging here and there, with pustules, running into one, oozing and

forming a grey-brown crust on the day following, which finally falls off—Pustules, with

inflammation, nearly general, of the teguments of the abdomen, followed by

desquamation.—Herpetic eruption on the scrotum.

Frequent yawning during the morning, with a sensation of flaccidity and tenderness

in the stomach.—Inclination to sleep, unconquerable in the afternoon; towards noon obliging the

patient to lie down, but without the power to go to sleep, with palpitation of the heart—Disturbed

sleep during the night, in consequence of a multitude of dreams, which are sometimes painful

and anxious.—At night, in bed, anxious tossing about, without power to sleep; afterwards sudden

sleep, with painful dreams.—Waking at midnight from a profound sleep, with legs as heavy as

lead.—On awaking, contusive pain in the limbs, and dulness and confusion of the

• ▸head.
• ▸—Headache, which awakens the patient.
• ▸—Sudden awakening.
• ▸—In sleep the patient lies on

his back, and is awakened by an emission of semen.—Numerous dreams, concerning the sleeper

himself, of a painful and afflicting character.

Susceptibility to cold: esp. at the extremities, with corrugated skin, disappearing in

bed; in the afternoon, not ceasing even in bed; chiefly in the back, above all in the abdomen;

from the feet to the calves of the legs —Coldness of the skin of the body, which becomes hot as

the pulse is accelerated, with perspiration.—Heat and fever accompanying the cutaneous

eruption.—Sudden coldness and paleness of the hands (as though dead), with wrinkles on the

fingers.—Chilliness, with shuddering.—At night, shivering, which passes over the whole

body.—Febrile condition, sometimes painful; at first with increase of heat in body, afterwards

with a sensation of coldness in the back, in the region of the lumbar vertebrze.—Increased heat

throughout the body; in the abdomen.—Ascension of heat on the body.—Heat, proceeding from

the lumbar vertebra; general, with perspiration and cephalalgia; burning, smarting, afterwards

coldness, proceeding from the lumbar vertebree.—Pulse frequent and full, quick and irritable;

feeble, and sometimes frequent at the same time; or else weak and small at first, becoming full

and strong.—Sweat, sometimes only on the forehead.

• ▸Cholera.
• ▸Cholerine.
• ▸Colds.
• ▸Cornea, opacity of.
• ▸Cough.
• ▸Diarrhea.
• ▸Ear, affections of.

• ▸Eczema.
• ▸Eyes, affections of.
• ▸Hypopion.
• ▸Keratitis.
• ▸Neuralgia.
• ▸Nipples, painful.
• ▸Ophthalmia.

Proctalgia. Rheumatism. Rhus poisoning.

• ▸Antidoted by: Ant.
• ▸t.
• ▸Antidote to: Rhus.
• ▸Compatible: K.
• ▸bro.
• ▸Compare: Elat.
• ▸, Verat.
• ▸,

• ▸Ricin.
• ▸, Euphorb.
• ▸, Anac.
• ▸, Colch.
• ▸, Rhus, Phos.
• ▸; in pains in breast, Bry.
• ▸, Borax.
• ▸, Phelland.
• ▸, and Sil.
• ▸;

• ▸in faintness during stool, scanty stools, Dulc.
• ▸, Ox.
• ▸ac.
• ▸, Petrol.
• ▸, Sars.
• ▸, Sul.
• ▸(stools not scanty,

• ▸Apis.
• ▸, Nux mosch.
• ▸, Puls.
• ▸, Spi.
• ▸, Ver.
• ▸); faintness after stool, Nux.

Compare: Momordica charantia-Hairy Mordica--(has marked drastic properties, producing colic, nausea, vomiting, cholera-like symptoms, abdomen seems full of fluid discharged explosively, thin, watery, yellow. Great thirst). Rhus; Anagallis; Anacard; Sepia.

Antidote: Ant tart.

Sixth to thirtieth potency.

Croton oil, when applied to the skin, produces both vesicles and

4^1

pustules upon an inflamed base, and the part becomes very red and

sore. The inflammation often increases until it resembles erysipelas,

but more commonly the eruption produced resembles a vesicular

eczema. This eruption will come on for a few days and will then

desiccate, and in a few days longer it will desquamate.

When one has been overdosed, as is done in a too prolonged proving,

or by the crude drug, or when the prover has been markedly sensitive,

we get an alternation of states, the internal alternating with the external. After the eruption is out the internal manifestations are not

present, as is seen in the rheumatic state, the cough and the bowel

symptoms. If wc study these groups separately we will find they are

all interesting.

First, its cough. It has an asthmatic cough, coming on in the middle

of the night, often arousing the patient from a sound sleep. Attacks

of violent coughing, with dyspnoea and choking, worse at night and

worse on lying down, compelling him to sit up, to be bolstered up in

bed, or to sit up in a reclining chair. His friends wonder if he is not

going into consumption. If it is a child they wonder whether it is

not whooping cough. There is extreme irritation of the air passages,

so that the inhalation of air brings on the cough. Sensitive to deep

breathing. Now, this will go on for a while and finally he will break

out with an eruption somewhere upon the body, vesicles and pustules,

in clusters and patches, that become inflamed and red and finally dry

up and desquamate and disappear, cand then back comes his cough.

This may go on as a chronic state, a|id when such is the case it will be

very well to know this remedy.

The next most important symptoms are the bowel symptoms, and

perhaps they are the best known of any of its symptoms outside of

the eruption. It is suitable in both acute and chronic diarrhoea. It

is suitable in cholera infantum. The marked feature is the extreme

suddenness with which the stool is ejected. It seems to come out in

one gush of yellow, watery or pappy stool ; soft, thin faeces, coming

out with one gush, So marked is this that it is not an uncommon

thing for a rural patient to describe it as “like tliat of a goose.** It

all gushes out in one squirt. The mother says of the little patient :

“You would be astonished, doctor, at the violent rush, for it all comes

out with one squirt.** That is descriptive. Many remedies have a

holding on and a prolonged effort at stool, until it takes quite a long

time. Many of the diarrhoeas are prolonged with numerous little

gushes of thin faeces or water, but this particular feature is striking.

It may not always be so, but this violent gush of thin, yellow faeces

or yellow water is a striking feature of the remedy. With this the

abdomen is very sensitive, and is greatly distended ; there is much

gurgling in the bowel, and when the physician puts his hand upon it

CROTON ttCUUM

the patient will say he feels the gurgling, as if he were full of water,

and it probably is so, for the expulsion of the stool would not occur

in one strong gush were it not for the fact that the colon and rectum

were full of Huid. Another peculiar thing commonly attending

Croton tig. diarrhoeas is that pressure over the abdomen or pressure

about the umbilicus causes a pain in the rectum and urging to stool,

and a feeling, with the expulsion of the stool, as if the rectum would

protrude. Clinically it has been described as if the pain followed the

intestines all the way down to the anus. The taking of a little water,

or of a little milk, what would ordinarily be suitable food for such a

diarrhoea, will at times cause an instant urging to stool ; he must go

to stool immediately after eating. This gives the general features of

the Croton tig. diarrhoea. If it is in an infant there is great exhaustion, tympanitic abdomen, much rumbling of the bowels, great

sinking, and as soon as the infant lakes one mouthful of milk or draws

from the mother's breast it expels a gush of liquid or pappy stool.

Another most important group of symptoms is its eye symptoms.

It has eye symptoms of an mllammatory character, and around the

eyes and upon the lids are vesicles and pustules. Pustules upon the

cornea, granular lids. Inflammation of all the tissues of the eye. It

has an inllammation of the iris and conjunctiva. The bloodvessels

of the eyes are distended, the eye looks red and raw. The eyelids

when turned out are seen to be greatly inflamed and granular, covered

with vesicles and pustules. With this inflammatory condition there is

a sensation very commonly present in the Croton tig. eye cases, as if

the eye were drawn backwards by a string, or as if the optic nerves were

dragging the eyes backwards into the head. This drawing in the

back of the eye as with a string is also peculiar to Paris quadrilolia,

but the conditions are difterent in Paris quad. In headaches trom

overuse of the eyes in engravers or those doing fine needle work, with

much neuralgia in the head, due probably to the overuse of the eyes,

when the pains in the eyes are not attended with inflammation, but

are more of the type of dull aches and pains that you might call only

rheumatic or neuralgic, with this sensation as if the eyes were drawn

back into the brain ; in these neuralgic cases use Paris quad. But in.

the inflammatory conditions such as I have described, with the same

drawing back as with a string, Croton tig. is the remedy.

Troublesome eczema of the scalp in infants, either purely vesicular

or intermingled more or less with pustules. The vesicles dry up and

then desquamate, and now there is a red, raw, inflamed surface, sensitive to touch. After desquamation has pretty nearly finished, a new

crop of pustules and vesicles comes out, and while one place is clearing

off another is vesicular. This is how it goes on with a chronic eczema-

The eruptions are often about the eyes, on the temples, over the face

and on top of the head. The appearance is so nearly like Sepia that

the two very often cannot be distinguished. Sepia has the same vesiculation intermingled with pustules, the bleeding and rawness of the

surface and the eruption of new crops. Sepia is more frequently indicated in this raw and bleeding state of the scalp, in crusta lactea, or

• ▸the eruption of children that Grot.
• ▸tig.
• ▸Under Croton tig.
• ▸infants in

this state very often have attacks of gushing diarrhoea, coming on

from the slightest disturbance or indigestion ; this is a great help in

guiding to the remedy. When the two groups of symptoms are combined, the scalp symptoms and the diarrhoea, you can hardly make a

mistake. You will see this also, that if the diarrhoea is at all prolonged, the head will steadily improve and you will think your j^atient

is getting well of the scalp trouble, but when the diarrhoea slackens

up a little out will come a fresh crop. If the diarrhoea becomes chronic

the external eruption will disappear, and if the diarrhoea improves

the external eruption gets worse. It seems necessary in such a constitution to have a vent. The mucous membrane is but the internal skin,

and the integument of the body the external skin, and this remedy especially manifests itself upon one or the other of these, the mucous

membrane or the integument.

It has another manifestation that you want to carry in mind, a

group of symptoms in relation to lactation. After confinement the

mother may go on a little while with all things following normally,

but all at once she commences to have pains in one or the other mammary gland, and the drawing as with a string comes up again. It

feels to her as if a string were attached behind the nipple pulling backward, a sharp, drawing, stinging pain that will in some instances keep

her walking the floor night and day. Though it is hut a little thing it

is a very important symptom to know with Croton tig. We see this

drawing, as with a string, in the eye and in the breast, and also the

symptom, very like the Plumbum symptom, drawing in the naval upon

pressure, somewhat like a string. Associating such things together

will enable you to understand them as a part of the nature of the

remedy and to keep them in mind. I once cured a woman of this

painful drawing from the nipple as with a string. I watched her walk

the floor and saw that the suffering must be very intense, for at times

it brought tears to her eyes. She had borne it several nights, which

shows that Croton tig. is capable of curing a pain that is very prolonged or tedious. The breast had been poulticed, hot applications had

been put upon it, and they did not give relief, a point which is worth

remembering.

In cholera infantum we will naturally have the symptoms of vomiting, which, however, are not so common to Croton tig., although it has

soinb vomiting. So- in cases of cholera infantum, in which the vomit-

424 CROTON TIGUUM

ing is not so important a feature as the loose bowels, the remedy may

• ▸be Crot.
• ▸tog.
• ▸A symptom is reported that is of great value.
• ▸Excessive

nausea with vanishing of sight, vertigo, worse after drinking, with

frequent discharges of yellowish-green water from the bowels ; excessive nausea, much water in the mouth. So we note the excessive

nausea and not so great vomiting. The nausea is more like that of

• ▸Ipecac.
• ▸, but in Ipecac, we have nothing like the stools of Crot.
• ▸tig.
• ▸, we

have only scanty little gushes, every minute a little gush with tenesmus. Vomiting is the all important symptom in the cholera infantum

of Ipecac., and when the stomach is emptied there is overwhelming

retching and exhaustion from it, and the stools are scanty ; but in

Croton tig. the stools arc copious and while there is nausea the vomiting is seldom and scanty.

Another feature to be considered in this remedy is its relation to

Rhus. It is an antidote to Rhus, Croton tig. is closely related in its

vesicular eruption to the Rhus family (particularly Rhus tox.). Ana

cardium, Sepia and Anagallis. The eruptions of Croton tig. very

often select as a location the genital organs. Rhus does the same, and

when the genital organs are the principal seat of the eruptions in

Rhus poisoning Croton tig. will commonly be its antidote; also when

the eruptions arc most about the eyes and scalp Croton tig. will often

furnish an antidote. When the symptoms, however, confine themselves to the palms of the hands Croton tig. is not the remedy, but it

is Anagallis. Anagallis does upon the palms of the hands just what

Croton tig. does upon the genitals. If you examine Anagallis you

will find that the eruptions will come out and desquamate, and no

sooner does the surface look as if it would heal than a new crop

comes out, Rhus is similar in that it locates upon the palms of the

hands, but Rhus does not repeat itself upon inflamed surfaces. In

the Croton tig. eruption there is some burning, but nothing like that

of Rhus. The Rhus burning pain in eruptions that are marked is

almost like fire. It is worse from the air, and it is better from dipping the part in water as hot as it is possible to endure it. Persons

who have these Rhus eruptions talk about scalding their hands to

relieve the itching and burning. So it is with Croton tig., but it is

usually so sore he cannot touch it ; when the eruption is so mild that

he can handle it, we find that the slightest rubbing relieves the itching. In Rhus touch aggravates the itching. In bad cases of Rhus

poisoning h6 will hold his fingers far apart if they have very large

blisters upon them, and he will not touch Ac place because it establishes a voluptuous itching that nearly drives him wild. Although

this is not so with Croton tig., still they are similar enough to each

other to be antidotal ; they do not have to be exactly alike, but they

need to be similar. It is true that remedies that are relieved by