Indigo Tinctoria

/ndigo was introduced into medicine as a remedy for epilepsy. It has been

extensively proved by homceopaths, and observations have also been made of its effects on

epileptic patients who were receiving large doses from old-school practitioners. The provings

bring out a number of neuralgic and nervous symptoms. These have been supplemented by

clinical observations, and the place of /ndg. in the materia medica is now fairly well defined.

Teste tried /ndg. in cases of epilepsy, but with little success, except in cases arising from the

presence of worms. In cases of worm fever he has used it with great effect. The patients were

children, from ton to twelve year sold, lymphatic, apathetic, peevish, who ate a great deal. The

symptoms were: Chilliness, catarrhal cough, coming in long paroxysms in evening; whitish,

moist tongue; sour or foul breath; large but soft abdomen; diarrhoea of two or three stools in

twenty-four hours, like greyish pap, sour; ascarides in rectum, even crawling out during sleep.

Teste also used Jndg. with success in the following cases: (/) Semi-liquid diarrhoea (three to four

stools a day, coming on especially after exercise in a stout old man, frequently given to excesses

of eating). (2) Chronic catarrh of the bladder. (3) Stricture of urethra after old gonorrhoea (with

• ▸Plumb.
• ▸and Sep.
• ▸).
• ▸E.
• ▸P.
• ▸Colby (N.
• ▸A.
• ▸J.
• ▸H.
• ▸, November, 1879, 666) gave it in all cases of epilepsy

coming under his care during twelve years, with the result that he apparently cured 10 per cent.,

and reduced the frequency of attacks in many more. The dosage is not mentioned, but was

probably crude. In the dynamic cures of epilepsy effected by /ndg., there has been great

melancholy which the patient has sought to hide, spending many nights crying alone; or a furious

excitable disposition before the attacks and mild and timid after. The attacks have been sudden;

apparently originating in the solar plexus, from which flushes of heat arise to the head; induced

by cold or fright. A peculiar sensation is an undulating sensation in the brain (which I have also

• ▸observed in a case of epilepsy benefited by Act.
• ▸r.
• ▸The /ndg.
• ▸undulation causes obscured vision).

A dry suffocative cough in evening and after going to bed, and a cough always attended by nose-

• ▸bleed are characteristics.
• ▸S.
• ▸T.
• ▸Yount (quoted H.
• ▸R.
• ▸, ii.
• ▸271) relates that he had used Jndg.

successfully as an emmenagogue, having been led thereto by the discovery that a patient of his

habitually employed it to procure abortion. He gave it in amenorrhcea in one to four-drachm

doses. His contraindications are important to homeeopaths. In very large doses, he says, the crude

drug produces nausea and vomiting. It should not be given to pregnant women, nor where there

is an irritable stomach, nor where there is the history of a previous pelvic inflammation, nor

• ▸where there is marked cerebral anzemia.
• ▸A case narrated by Nash (Med.
• ▸Adv.
• ▸, xviii.
• ▸223) brings

out one of the characteristic conditions of /ndg. A hard-working man, over 70, gradually became

unable to work. Weak; stiffness all over, especially right side, arm and leg. Pain in night hip

running down leg; < beginning to move after resting. Can hardly turn over in bed. Appetite poor;

stomach distressed, four or five hours after eating, if he eats more than a very little. Pains in the

• ▸limbs decidedly < after every meal.
• ▸Indg.
• ▸cured promptly.
• ▸There are marked symptoms of

brachial and sciatic neuralgia which have this peculiarity: they come on or are < whilst sitting

and are > by moving about. Symptoms in general are: < By rest; when sitting. > By motion;

• ▸rising; walking.
• ▸> By pressure; by rubbing.
• ▸< In afternoon; in evening.
• ▸The vertigo with

headache is > in evening, and < in open air. Warmth rushes to head on entering a warm room

after walking in cold air. All symptoms are < after eating and after evening meal.

Pains which disappear entirely, or at least re-appear only, with greatly

diminished force, after resting on the part affected, or after scratching.—Shooting and tearing

pains in the limbs, in the afternoon and evening.—Subsultus tendinum.

• ▸Vertigo with nausea.
• ▸Convulsions.
• ▸Sensation of a band around forehead.
• ▸Undulating sensation through whole head.
• ▸Sensation as if brain were frozen.
• ▸Gloomy; cries at night.
• ▸Hair feels pulled from vertex.
• ▸Head feels frozen.

Vertigo, excessive, with headache.—Rush of blood to the head.—Sensation, as if the

head were larger than its natural size, and occupied more space.—Sensation as if the head were

tightly bandaged around the forehead.—Pressure deep within the brain—Shooting and tearing

• ▸pains deep in the brain.
• ▸—Tearing in the vertex.
• ▸—Sensation as of a weight on vertex.
• ▸—Noise and

throbbings in the head.—Heat and bubbling in the occiput, as if produced by boiling

water.—Undulating sensation in head from behind forward, causing vision to become

indistinct—Flushes of heat from the abdomen to the head.—Warmth and rushing like boiling

water in occiput.—Heat in occiput, later more in middle of brain.—Violent stitches in occiput (1.

• ▸and r.
• ▸).
• ▸—Peculiar sensation of fine sticking and of coldness in scalp, in front and above r.
• ▸ear,

spreading out like rays from this point.—Headache, with sensation as if the head was frozen, and

anorexia.—Sensation in the crown of the head as if a bunch of hair were being torn out.

Convulsive twitching and quivering of the eyelids, impeding the sight.—Pressure in the

ball of the eye —Inflammation of the meibomian glands on the lower lids.

Pressure and roaring.

Tearing, in and behind the ears, as well as in the lower jaw. Pressure and roaring in

ears.

Excessive sneezing and bleeding from nose.

Epistaxis, with vanishing of sight (afternoon).—Excessive continued sneezing,

succeeded by violent bleeding of the nose.—Tearing and incisive pains in the bones and

cartilages of the nose.

Tearing, piercing, and gnawing pains in bones of the face, and esp. of lower

• ▸jaw.
• ▸—Pricking in r.
• ▸malar bone.
• ▸—Pain in the submaxillary glands extending to the

teeth.—Congestion in the face, with burning cheeks.

Numbness of interior of mouth, in the morning after waking.—Sensation of burning

on the tongue and in the bottom of the palate ——Vesicles on the tip of the tongue.—Metallic taste

in tongue with contracted feeling in pharynx.—Spitting of bloody sativa.

Drawing, gnawing, tearing pains in teeth (r.), as if being pulled out, along ascending

ramus of jaw into temple and ear, with increase of saliva and sweat of r. half of head, and general

sweat evening in bed; pains < by warmth; > by motion; momentarily > by cold air; pulsation in

whole r. lower jaw. (Nux relieved this, but it returned succeeding days and became paroxysmal).

• ▸Metallic taste.
• ▸Eructations.
• ▸Bloating.
• ▸Anorexia.
• ▸Flushes of heat rising from stomach to head.

Empty risings.—Risings having the taste of ink —Sweetish risings.—Retching and

vomiting of watery fluid—Vomiting of glue-like mucus.—Sensation in the stomach, as when

fasting; with hot risings from time to time; when sitting.—Tingling pain in the pit of the stomach.

Falling of rectum. Aroused at night with horrible itching at anus.

Loose evacuations with pinchings in the abdomen, and urgent desire to

• ▸evacuate.
• ▸—Dull sticking in rectum.
• ▸—Emission of an excessive quantity of flatulence.
• ▸—Diarrhcea;

stool liquid, with flatulence; creeping over the skin and cold hands and colic.—Obstinate

• ▸constipation; stool scanty, hard, retained.
• ▸—Itching at anus.
• ▸—Pin worms.
• ▸—Prolapsus ani after each

stool.

Renal colic—Frequent desire to urinate, with burning in the fundus of the

bladder; painful emissions of small quantities of turbid urine —Increased emission of turbid

urine, containing much mucus, without thirst, with violent contraction of the urethra and pain in

the bladder.—(Stricture of urethra.)

Constant desire to urinate. Urine turbid. Catarrh of bladder.

Menstruation too early.—(Acts as an emmenagogue. Has been used

• ▸to produce abortion.
• ▸).
• ▸—Stinging in the mamme, going off momentarily by rubbing.
• ▸—Burning in

the mamme during the menses.

Violent cough, inducing vomiting; bleeding of the nose.—Suffocating

cough, exciting vomiting in the evening, before and after lying down.

Rumbling and grumbling in the chest at every inspiration —Shooting pains in and

round the mamme.

Stitch between the scapula.—Stitch in the small of the back, going off after

an evacuation.

Weakness of arms.—Drawing in muscles; in deltoid.—Drawing, extending,

• ▸down I.
• ▸arm from lower part of neck.
• ▸—Drawing, extending from r.
• ▸shoulder-joint through whole

arm to below joint of thumb, where it ended in the bone with a jerking while sitting; > moving

about.—Tearing pains in the forearms, from the elbow to the fingers, which change their place on

motion.—Convulsive startings in the arms.—Veins of the hands red, inflamed, and

tense.—Shooting and tearing pains in the upper extremities.

Aching, stinging, bruised pain in sciatic nerve, boring in knee-joint, pricking

in calf; < sitting, > by motion, though motion also painful; < afternoon and evening; must lie

down.—Indescribable pain from middle of thigh to knee in bone, > walking, returning during

rest, in afternoon.—Tearing pain above the knee-joint extending to ankle; in afternoon, while

sitting, > moving about.—Tearing in the lower extremities, esp. in the toes —Great lassitude of

the lower extremities in the evening, which is felt even after lying down.

• ▸Sciatica.
• ▸Pain from middle of thigh to knee.
• ▸Boring pain in knee-joint; better, walking.
• ▸Pain in limbs worse after every meal.

• ▸Face and whole body covered with pimples.
• ▸—Fine heat-rash, esp.
• ▸|.
• ▸side of face

extending from forehead to throat.—Itching of skin with constipation —Boils on ribs and various

parts.—Itching, in face and various parts of body; > by rubbing.

Sleepiness in the evening and disturbed sleep at night.—Illusory

sensations.—Children aroused at night with horrible itching at anus.—At night, anxious waking,

with a start—Anxious dreams.—Excessive nervous irritation.—Predominance of

cold.—Convulsions; attacks sudden.

Chilliness, with cold hands and violent headache, with constant desire to urinate;

urine turbid.—Great heat, particularly in the face, with increased secretion of urine.

• ▸Acne.
• ▸Amenorrhcea.
• ▸Anus, prolapse of.
• ▸Brachial neuralgia.
• ▸Constipation.
• ▸Cough.

• ▸Diarrhoea.
• ▸Epilepsy.
• ▸Epistaxis.
• ▸Face, pimples on.
• ▸Headache.
• ▸Hysteria.
• ▸Renal colic.
• ▸Sciatica.
• ▸Skin,

• ▸affections of.
• ▸Toothache.
• ▸Urethra, stricture of.
• ▸Worms.

• ▸Antidoted by: Camph.
• ▸, Nux.
• ▸Compare: Sul.
• ▸(epilepsy; sinking sensation; hot flushes;

• ▸worm fever); Kali bro.
• ▸(epilepsy; acne); Act.
• ▸r.
• ▸(epilepsy with waving sensation in brain); Rhus

(< by rest, > by motion); Bufo (epilepsy: Ind., timid, sad, low-spirited; Bufo, vehement or

• ▸excitable); Lyc.
• ▸(< in after noon); Ign.
• ▸(sad, introverted); Baptis.
• ▸("Wild Indigo"), and other

Leguminose.

Compare: Cuprum; OEstrus cameli, an Indian medicine for epilepsy.

Third to thirtieth potency.

• ▸Hysterical symptoms where pain predominates Excessive nervous irritation.
• ▸Epilepsy; flashes of heat from abdomen to head; fit begins with dizziness.
• ▸Aura from a painful spot between shoulders.
• ▸Reflex spasms from worms.