Helleborus Niger

This was also proved by Schroff. It produced roaring in the ears; itching in the

nose; and prickling of the tongue; diarrhoea of liquid stools; a condition of sopor. Cooper has

cured with it ulcers of the leg, near the ankle, after the failure of He//. n. Also a case of epilepsy

in a child, the concomitant symptoms being: "Head sweats before the fit; diarrhoea for four days

sleepy."

• ▸Slow in answering.
• ▸Thoughtless; staring.
• ▸Involuntary sighing.
• ▸Complete unconsciousness.
• ▸Picks lips and clothes.

Melancholy taciturnity.—Excessive, and almost mortal anguish.—Home-

sickness.—Hypochondriacal humour.—T¢dium vit¢; envious seeing others

• ▸happy.
• ▸—Suicidal.
• ▸—Indolence.
• ▸—Sobbing lamentation.
• ▸—Obstinate silence.
• ▸—Irritable, < from

• ▸consolation.
• ▸—Suspicious.
• ▸—Dulness of the internal senses.
• ▸—Stupidity and want of reflection, with

(thoughtless) fixedness of look on one single point, much moaning, and inability to

think —Weakness of the memory.—The mind seems to lose command over the body; the muscles

refuse their office as soon as the attention is diverted (if the will is not strongly fixed upon their

action; if he talks he lets fall what he holds in his hand).

Shooting and piercing pains in different parts, and esp. in the periosteum, <

by fresh air, corporeal fatigue, eating and drinking.—Pullings and tearing in the limbs.—Shooting

pains in the joints.—Sudden relaxation of all the muscles.—The muscles refuse to perform their

office, unless sustained attention be paid to them; staggering gait; suffering objects to fall which

are grasped by the hand.—Convulsive twitching of the muscles (during sleep).—Relief is found in

the open air, and sensations are felt as when recovering from a long illness.—AlI things have a

• ▸freshness about them.
• ▸—Convulsions.
• ▸—Cramps.
• ▸—Syncope.
• ▸—Dropsical swellings.
• ▸—Falling off of

the hair and nails.

• ▸Forehead wrinkled in folds.
• ▸Cold sweat.
• ▸Stupefying headache.
• ▸Rolls head day and night; moaning, sudden screams.
• ▸Bores head into pillow; beats it with hands.
• ▸Dull pain in occiput, with sensation of water swashing inside.
• ▸Headache culminates in vomiting.

• ▸Eyeballs turn upwards; squinting, vacant look.
• ▸Pupils dilated.
• ▸Eyes wide open, sunken.
• ▸Night-blindness.

Pain in the eyes, as if a nail were driven into the orbital margins.—Pressive heaviness in

the eyes, in a downward direction.—Pupils dilated (one pupil larger than the other) without

inflammation.—Involuntary fixedness of look on one single point.—Twitching in the levatores

palpebrarum and the cheeks, with heat in the face.—Night-blindness —Photophobia by day.

• ▸Dirty, dry nostrils.
• ▸Rubs nose.
• ▸Smell diminished.
• ▸Nose pointed.

Violent itching of nose with frequent violent sneezing (from application of extract to

mucous membrane of nose).

• ▸Pale, sunken.
• ▸Cold sweat.
• ▸Wrinkled.
• ▸Neuralgia on left side; parts so tender he cannot chew.

Face pale, sometimes yellowish.—Pale and Sdematous swelling of the face —Forehead

• ▸wrinkled.
• ▸—White vesicles on the lips, which are swollen.
• ▸—The upper lip is cracked.
• ▸—Soreness of

the corners of the mouth.—Dull aching pain in the cheek-bone.

• ▸Horrible smell from mouth.
• ▸Lips dry and cracked.
• ▸Tongue red and dry.
• ▸Falling of lower jaw.
• ▸Meaningless picking of lips.
• ▸Grinding of teeth.
• ▸Chewing motion.
• ▸Greedily swallows cold water, though unconscious.
• ▸Child nurses greedily, with disgust for food.
• ▸Ptyalism, with sore corners of mouth.

Prickling on tongue > by frequent rinsing of mouth with water.—Burning in

mouth.—At first profuse secretion of saliva and mucus in mouth, soon followed by dryness.—The

taste was so intensely bitter and rancid, that she suffered for a long time from nausea and great

inclination to vomit.

Feeling of warmth in pharynx and stomach, gradually becoming a dull burning, not

> by drinking much water.

• ▸11, 12.
• ▸Stomach and Abdomen.
• ▸—Frequent eructations, and gurgling in abdomen.
• ▸—Digestion

disturbed several days —Abdomen somewhat sensitive and distended.

Loss of appetite —Eructations —Hiccough.—Nausea.—Burning, extending from

stomach to lower portion of cesophagus.—Epigastric region: Feeling of fulness with inclination to

vomit; slight burning, afterwards extending to intestines, followed by pressure in stomach.

12, 13. Abdomen and Stool.—Frequent rumbling along bowels, in morning on waking, soon

• ▸followed by four liquid stools in succession.
• ▸—Pain esp.
• ▸in region of |.
• ▸transverse colon.

Gurgling, as if bowels were full of water. Swollen, painful to touch.

Pinchings in the abdomen.—Sensation of coldness in the abdomen.—Heaviness

• ▸in the abdomen.
• ▸—Dropsical swelling in the abdomen.
• ▸—Clucking in the abdomen, esp.
• ▸on

breathing deeply, as if there were water in the intestines.—Rumbling and borborygmi in the

abdomen.—In r. inguinal region single pressures ending in a stitch, a sensation as if a hernia

would ensue.—Severe hard pressure on middle of os pubis.

Jelly-like, white mucus; involuntary.

Very profuse liquid stools.—Three liquid evacuations from bowels, at short intervals,

with intense colic, the last stool accompanied by tenesmus, great nausea, with inclination to

vomit, violent headache and thirst.

Tenesmus, with discharge of (white) gelatinous mucus, preceded by

pinchings in the umbilical region.—Stools consisting of pure, tenacious, white mucus.—Stools

like frog-spawn.—DiarrhSa, with pain in the abdomen, and nausea.—Watery and frequent

evacuations.—Hard, scanty stool, during and immediately after which violent cutting, shooting in

rectum, from below up, just as if it contracted tightly, and as if a body with cutting edges stuck

there.—After an evacuation, burning hot smarting at the anus.—Feeling as if intestines had no

power to evacuate féces, during soft stool—Involuntary stools.—Blenorrhsa of rectum with

spasm of bladder —Hémorrhoids.

• ▸Suppressed; scanty, dark; coffee-grounds sediment.
• ▸Frequent urging.
• ▸Child cannot urinate.
• ▸Bladder overdistended.

Pain under I. nipple, pains all over her, forced her menses on; had

to get up at night to pass water—Suppression of menses.—AmenorrhSa: from disappointed love;

from damp feet, and getting wet through.

• ▸Frequent sighing.
• ▸Respiration irregular.
• ▸Chest constricted; gasps for breath.
• ▸Hydrothorax (Merc sulph).

Sighing respiration. —Breathes easier lying down.—Breathing difficult

with anxiety, < every evening, must sit up.—Cough: dry, backing, < at night, with gagging;

comes suddenly while smoking.—Suffocating constriction in the throat and nose.—Short, dry

cough, with painful tension in the |. hypochondrium.—Difficult respiration, as from

hydrothorax.—Accelerated, or deep and slow respiration.

Palpitation of the heart——Anxiousness about heart which prevents him resting

anywhere.

Stiffness and painful sensibility of the neck and the nape of the neck

• ▸during movement.
• ▸—Swelling of the glands of the neck.
• ▸—Contractive pain in the loins.
• ▸—Gnawing

and obtuse lancinations of the spine.—Pain, as from a bruise, between the shoulder-blades.

Tearing in the bones of the arms and joints, and in the upper part of the

fingers.—Jerking in the muscles of the arms.—Piercing and shooting in the hands and joints of the

fingers.—Want of strength in the hands——Spasmodic stiffness of the fingers.—Humid, painless

vesicles between the fingers.—Ulceration around the nails.

Violent lancinations, and burning pressure in the hips.—Pricking pain in the

• ▸1.
• ▸hip.
• ▸—Want of stability in the legs, with yielding of the knees.
• ▸—Stiffness and tension in the

thighs and hams.—Obtuse and piercing lancinations in the joints of the knees, and of the

feet.—Humid, painless vesicles between the toes.

• ▸Automatic motion of one arm and leg.
• ▸Limbs heavy and painful.
• ▸Stretching of limbs.
• ▸Thumb drawn into palm (Cupr).
• ▸Vesicular eruption between fingers and toes.

• ▸Pale, dropsical, itching.
• ▸Livid spots on skin.
• ▸Sudden, watery, swelling of skin.
• ▸Falling off of hair and nails.
• ▸Angio-neurotic oedema.

Paleness of the skin.—Miliary eruptions.—Leucophlegmatic swelling of the skin of the

whole body; anasarca.—General desquamation of the skin.—The hair and nails fall off.

• ▸Sudden screams in sleep.
• ▸Soporous sleep.
• ▸Cri encephalique.
• ▸Cannot be fully aroused.

A condition bordering on sopor, lasting the whole night, and preventing refreshing

sleep.—Night restless, sleep frequently interrupted.

• ▸Antidoted by: Camph.
• ▸, Chi.
• ▸Compatible: Zinc.
• ▸, Bell.
• ▸, Bry.
• ▸, Chi.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸, Nux v.
• ▸, Phos.
• ▸,

• ▸Puls.
• ▸, Sul.
• ▸Compare: Apis.
• ▸(Apis has exquisite sensitiveness of abdomen; Hell.
• ▸n.
• ▸complete

sensorial apathy; Hell. n. has puckering of face, dropping of jaw, and automatic action of limbs

• ▸of one side; Apis has < from heat, Hell.
• ▸n.
• ▸> from heat); Apocy.
• ▸, Digit.
• ▸(slow pulse); Kali bro.
• ▸,

• ▸Lach.
• ▸; Dig.
• ▸, Tereb.
• ▸(breathes better lying down); Phos.
• ▸ac.
• ▸(sensorial depression, drowsiness,

apathy; but Phos. ac. can be roused easily; muscles not completely relaxed, has not the dirty

• ▸nostrils of Hell.
• ▸n.
• ▸).
• ▸Opium (but the stupor of Op.
• ▸is more profound; face dark, breathing

stertorous); Zinc. (checked exanthemata; hydrocephalus; Zinc. has fidgety motion of feet); Lach.

(coffee-ground sediment in urine; muscular weakness; jelly-like mucous diarrhsa accompanying

• ▸dropsy); Pip.
• ▸meth.
• ▸, Ox.
• ▸ac.
• ▸(> when mind diverted); Nat.
• ▸m.
• ▸(< from consolation).

(Hellebor faetidus, or, Polymnia-Bear's foot--Acts especially on spleen (Ceanothus); also rectum and sciatic nerve. Splenic pains extend to scapula, neck and head, worse left side and evening; chronic ague cake; hypertrophied uterus; glandular enlargements; hair and nails falling off; skin peeling). Hellebor orientalis (salivation).

Antidote: Camphor; Cinch.

Compare: Threatening effusion; Tuberc; Apis; Zinc; Opium; Cinch; Cicuta; Iodoform.

Tincture, to third potency.

In all the complaints of Helleborus stupefaction occurs in greater

or less degree. Sometimes it is a complete stupor, sometimes a partial

stupor, but it is always stupefaction and sluggishness.

Hellebore is useful in affections of the brain, spinal cord, the general nervous system and mind, but especially in acute inflammatory

diseases of the brain and spinal cord and their membranes, and in

troubles bordering on insanity. There is a peculiar kind of imbecility

or stupefaction of the body and mind. The extreme state is unconsciousness. Complete unconsciousness in connection with cerebral

congestion, or inflammation which has gone on to hydrocephalus,

cerebro-spinal meningitis, or inflammation of the brain, with stupefaction. Even early in the disease Hellebore lacks the wildness and

acute delirium found is Stramonium and Belladonna, It is passive.

Again, it fits in after the wildness of the delirium has passed away and

the patient has settled down into a state of stupefaction. The patient

lies upon the back, eyes partly open, rolling the head, mouth open,

tongue dry, eyes lustcrless, staring into space. Staring at the individual

talking. Waiting a long time to answer, or not answering at all.

Violent attacks of brain trouble frequently come to a sudden end,

but those that are more passive linger, and that is where Hellebore

comes in. The Hellebore case will linger for weeks and sometimes

months in this state of stupefaction, gradually emaciating. He lies

upon the back with the limbs drawn up ; he looks pale and sickly.

When questioned he answers slowly. The text says: ‘^Stupefaction

bordering on insensibility.’’ Another common expression is: “Diminished power of the mind over the body.” The muscles will not act ;

they will not obey the will. It is a sort of paralytic state, but “stupefaction” expresses it. Cannot project; ideas ; cannot rivet the attention ;

cannot concentrate the mind. The patient appears semi-idiotic.

Delirium is not common, and when present it is muttering. There

is more stupefaction, more “do nothing,” more “say nothing,” than

delirium. Yet there is evidently confusion of mind ; he cannot think.

In many instances, very late in the disease, the patient can be roused

up, and he will act as if he were attemping to think, as if he were

attempting to answer, attempting to move. But he simply stares at

the doctor with eyes partly open, with a dazed expression on his face,

and picks his finger ends.

When questioned the Hellebore patient is not able to tell you what

he has in mind, unless considerably aroused and agitated. But when

so aroused he will talk about spirits, or say that he sees devils. He

sees in his imagination those images that he has read about, or seen

pictured, as the devil, with horns and a tail. A young person who

has never heard of the devil, or of spirits, would not have that form

of hallucination in his delirium. The hallucinations are shaped in

accordance with what he has been taught to imagine.

Hellebore has a peculiar quasi-hystcrical condition — a form of insanity. She imagines she has sinned away her day of grace. Like

Aurum, she believes that she is doing wrong, that she is committing an

unpardonable sin. That is as near as the remedy approaches to insanity.

*'An old woman having been accused of theft by the women around

took it so much to heart that she hanged herself. This suicide produced such an effect on the women of the village that one after

another accused herself of having caused the death of the old woman.''

The most striking type in Hellebore is the sick child. It comes in

especially in children between two and ten years of age. The staring

— lying on the back and staring with half-closed eyes — is typical of

the remedy. Sometimes the lips move without any sound. The lips

move as if the child wishes to say something, but on further questioning the words he wished to speak are lost, forgotten.

In hydrocephalus there is a sharp scream, the brain cry. The child

will cry out in sleepT He will carry the hand to the head and shriek,

like Apis, But the Apis hydrocephalus is far more active and acute.

The Apis patient kicks the covers off ; this patient does not mind the

covers, he does not mind anything. He is not easily disturbed. He

lies upon his back with the limbs drawn up ; often making automatic

motions with the arms and legs. Sometimes one side is paralyzed,

but the other keeps up automatic motions.

Hellebore is useful in the low form of disease known as ''apathetic

typhoid." These same symptoms guide to the remedy. Indifferent

to all external impressions. Rarely much disturbed by being touched,

or by being covered too warmly, or by not being covered at all. He

does not seem to be sensitive to heat, or cold, or pricking, or handling

or pinching. Listlessness. What is called in the text "stubborn

silence" is more an apathetic silence, an inability to speak. It appears

as if he refused to answer, but he docs not ; he does not know how to

answer ; he cannot think.

Fixed ideas in persons who are said to be just a little '*off their

balance," a little queer. And that fixed idea will stay ; there is no use

trying to argue him out of it. The woman gets a fixed idea that she

is going to die on a certain day — and nothing can get it out of her

head. This is not like Aconite, because there is no fear of death.

Aconite has fear of death and fixes the time of death. Fixed idea

that she has committed some sin, which she will at times name and

describe, or perhaps only mention vaguely — but it is very real to her.

When able to be about the patient appears to be sad, because sher

sits and says nothing, and seems to be in a woeful mood. But there

is not that great lamentation, with walking the floor and wringing the

hands ,that we find in Aurum, It is an apathetic state ; she appears

sad and melancholy, whereas perhaps she does little thinking. Any

attempt at consolation, so long as the patient is able to think, only

aggravates the trouble. Like Natrum muriaticum, the complaints are

aggravated by consolation, but the complaints of Natrum muriaticum

are not at all like these. If the Hellebore patient is able to meditate

llELLKBOROt^S KlGER

upon his symptoms, they seem to grow better.

Sometimes there are convulsive motions in this remedy, but they are

more likely to be automatic. Motions that seem to have nothing to

do with the will. He simply makes motions, like one moving in an

absent-ntinded state.

The Helleborus patient is benumbed everywhere. The whole sensorium is in a benumbed state, a stupefaction, a blunting of general

sensibility. The text says: '‘Vision unimpaired.” Nevertheless he

sees imperfectly ; he does not regard the object his gaze is fixed upon ;

that is, his range of vision appears to be correct, yet if questioned a

little as to what he saw, he has no recollection of it ; it has made no

impression upon his memory or his mind.

Vertigo, with nausea and vomiting. Vertigo from stooping. With

the general stupefaction the head rolls and tosses. The child lies upon

the back and rolls the head from side to side. The eyes are partly

open, and he keeps boring the back of the head into the pillow. This

is partly unconscious and partly to relieve the drawing in the muscles

of the back of the neck. These muscles keep shortening, as the disease

progresses, just as they do in crebro-spinal meningitis ; until the head

is drawn back as far as it can go.

There is burning heat in the head ; shooting pains ; pressive pains

in the head from congestion. Violent occipital headache. Dull aching

in the occiput ; benumbed feeling ill the occiput. A feeling like wood ,

fulness, congestion and pressure. The headaches, the motions of the

head and the appearance of the face are those occurring in congestion

of the brain. I have seen children, after passing through a moderately acute but rather passive first stage, lie in this stupid stale, needing Hellebore for weeks before they received it. When it was given

repair set in ; not instantly, but gradually. The remedy acts slowly

in these slow, stubborn, stupid cases of brain and spinal trouble. Sometimes there is no apparent change until the day after the remedy is

administered or even the next night, when there comes a sweat, a

diarrhoea, or vomiting — ^a reaction. They must not be interfered with

no remedy must be given. They are signs of reaction. If the child

has vitality enough to recover, he will now recover. If the vomiting

is stopped by any remedy that will stop it, the Hellebore will be antidoted. Let the vomiting or the diarrhoea or the sweat alone, and it

will pass away during the day. The child will become warm, and in

a few days will return to consciousness — and then what will take

place? Just imagine these benumbed fingers and hands and limbs,

this benumbed skin everywhere. What would be the most natural

thing to develop as evidence of the rousing up of this stupid child?

It is necessary for you to know this. It is not really a part of Ae

teaching of the homoeopathic Materia Medica, but you must know what

to expect after giving this remedy. It is a clinical obsefvation which

you will see if you see Hellebore cases, and Zincum cases. Zincum

is, if possible, even more profound in its dredful state of stupefaction

than Hellebore. Well, that child’s fingers will commence to tingle.

As he comes back to his normal nervous condition, the fingers commence to tingle, the nose and ears tingle, and the child begins to

scream and toss back and forth and roll about the bed. The neighbors will come in and say, “I would send that doctor away unless he

gives something to help that child but just as sure as you do it you

will have a dead baby in twenty-four hours. That child is getting

well ; let him alone. You will never be able to manage one of these

cases if you do not take the father into a room by himself and tell himi

just how the case will proceed. Do not take the mother ; do not tell

her a word about it, unless she is an unusually excellent mother, because that is her child, and she is sympathetic, and she will cry when

she hears that child cry ; she will lose her head and will insist upon

the father turning you out of doors. But you take the father aside

beforehand and tell him what is going to happen ; explain it to him so

he will see it for himself ; and tell him that if this is not permitted to

go on, that if the remedy is interfered with, he will lose his child.

It is not so much the awful pains, but it is the itching, tingling and

formication that cause the appearance of extreme agony. Sometimes

in every part of the child’s body it is a week before all these symptoms

go away of themselves— -but they will go away, if left alone.

AH this will make you nervous. Do not stay and watch the case

too long, because if you do you will change the remedy. I never heard

of one solitary cure like these in the hands of an Old School doctor.

The face has a very sickly appearance ; sunken ; gradually emaciating. It has a sooty appearance, just as if soot had settled in the

nostrils and in the corners of the eyes. You will say that the patient

is going to die. Quite likely — without Hellebore. The remedy fits

the kind of cases that the allopath knows nothing about and has no

remedy for. His prognosis is always unfavorable. The face, of

course, expresses the mental symptoms. Wrinkled forehead, bathed

in cold sweat. Paleness of the face and heat of the head. Twitching

of the muscles of the face. We find that knitting of the brow and

wrinkling of the forehead in just this kind of brain trouble. We find

a similar kind of wrinkling in Lycopodium, but the trouble is in the

• ▸lungs.
• ▸In this remedy the nostrils are dilated and sooty.
• ▸Nor much flapping, but extremely dilated.
• ▸The eyeballs are glassy and the lids sticky.

There is violent thirst in these fevers, and unusual canine hunger.

The nausea and vomiting are nondescript. In the early part of the

proving there are diarrhoea and dysentery; with copious white gelatinous stool ; stool consisting solely of pale tenacious mucus. And

The pulse rose during the first hour several beats in frequency (apparently caused by

the excessive nausea from the bad taste of the drug), and afterwards sank below the normal in

one case; while in those who took doses of 2 to 4 grains enveloped in a vehicle, the pulse

immediately sank several beats.