Mancinella

The mandrake does not derive its name from the shape of the human body

which the root of the plant sometimes takes, but from the name by which it was known to the

Greeks, Mandragora, and which signifies injurious to cattle. In legend and poetry the mandrake

figures largely. It is said to be the "Insane root" spoken of by Macbeth, and it is mentioned by

name in Antony and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet. Mand. must not be confounded with

Podophyllum, which is also sometimes called "Mandrake," as also is Bryonia dioica in this

country. Mand. is known to homeeopathy through some experiments of Dufresne made on

himself and another by repeatedly smelling, at short intervals, the expressed juice of the plant,

"which has a nauseating odour like adder's flesh"; and also by an experiment of W. B.

• ▸Richardson's.
• ▸There are two varieties of Mand.
• ▸offic.
• ▸, the vernal and the autumnal.
• ▸The plant

Dufresne used was the Vernalis. The symptoms were very similar to those of Belladonna, to

which it is botanically closely related. There was a restless excitability and bodily weariness.

Great desire for sleep. The unpleasant symptoms go off at night in bed, and are succeeded by a

gentle perspiration. The effects were removed by free indulgence in wine, coffee, and cigars.

With regular dieting they lasted much longer, and were removed by Nux, Camph., and Bell,

"Inactive bowels with white, hard stools," was one symptom. There is exaggeration of sounds,

and enlarged vision.

• ▸Silent mood, sadness.
• ▸Wandering thoughts.
• ▸Sudden vanishing of thought.
• ▸Bashful.
• ▸Fear of becoming insane.

Lassitude and indescribable uncomfortable feeling in limbs; much

stretching.—Fainting with intestinal colic—Convulsions.

Vertigo; head feels lights, empty. Scalp itches. Hair falls out after acute sickness.

Illusions of smell; of gunpowder, dung, etc. Pressure at root of nose.

Face: swollen; pale; pale, yellow, bloated.—Heat rising to face; soon after, painful

itching, stitching, and burning, lasting all day; next morning face swollen; towards noon minute

vesicles with yellow fluid; next day, desquamation.—Lips pale; pricking pains.—Lower lip hangs

down.—Numerous small vesicles on chin which desquamate.

• ▸Feels peppery.
• ▸Copious, offensive saliva.
• ▸Taste of blood.
• ▸Burning of fauces.
• ▸Dysphagia from constriction of throat and oesophagus.

Great elongation of uvula—Heat in pharynx and down ssophagus without

thirst—Great dryness, on waking; stitches.—Choking sensation rises in throat when speaking;

prevents drinking though thirsts for cold water.—Great swelling and suppurating of tonsils with

danger of suffocation; whistling breathing —White, yellowish, burning ulcers on tonsils and in

throat.

Continual choking sensation rising from stomach. Vomiting of ingesta, followed by gripping and copious stools. Burning pains and black vomit.

Thirst: for cold water; and aversion to wine and alcohol.—Aversion to meat and

bread.—Can take only liquid food on account of soreness of mouth.

Drinking water < bloatedness and pain in stomach.—After drinking water; colic;

pain in abdomen.—Ineffectual desire to eructate or gag with excessive nausea.—Continual

choking sensation rising from stomach as pressure of wind, with weakness and

palpitation.—Repeated green vomit.—Sour, greasy vomit with aversion to water; on vomit floats a

white mass like coagulated fat—Vomiting of food, followed by severe colic and profuse

diarrhsa.—Vomiting > headache —Burning: in stomach and throat, with nausea; in pit of

stomach.—Pit of stomach swollen and sensitive to pressure.—Distension and pain in region of

stomach.—Sensation as of flames rising from stomach.—Sensation as if stomach drew together in

a lump and then suddenly opened.

Rumbling in |. side when bending to r.—Sudden sticking in 1.

hypochondrium.—Pain in |. hypochondrium in a spot as large as a florin, compelling her to press

there with hand; rumbling in I. side when lying on r., also with every respiration; none when

lying on 1. side-—Wandering pains in abdomen.—Pains through bowels after drinking

water.—Loud rumbling; renewed by every motion and deep breath, with headache which is much

< near warm stove.—Colic: after drinking water; with diarrhsa (at midnight), with fainting,

constipation alternating with diarrhsa—Abdomen: distended; sore as if bruised; rash on.

Fulness in rectum with hollow feeling in stomach.—Profuse diarrhsa with

colic and vertigo.—Many bloody stools with colic, inclination to sleep, and vertigo——Greenish

stools without blood.—DiarrhSa: with burning in abdomen and anus; alternating with

constipation; with cutting in abdomen and much discharge of flatus.—Stools: frequent, thin,

watery, with vomiting; painful, black, fetid, bloody, with tenesmus.—After stool: pulsation in

anus, discharge of fetid blood from piles.—Constipation.

Tired feeling in region of kidneys (as if bruised) with inclination to rub

parts, and frequent stretching back of body.—Stitches in bladder before and at beginning of

urination.—Burning in urethra—Urine: brown; whitish, clouded on standing.

Hoarseness.—Slight cough with expectoration.—Difficult breathing.

24. Generalities—Lingering uneasiness and coldness after removal of other symptoms.—Bodily

weakness.

Constriction of chest.—Rattling in 1. chest—Suffocative attacks with pulsation in

chest while coughing, or as soon as he begins to talk —Pain in centre of sternum, < from pressure

and from breathing.

• ▸Painful stiffness of neck, esp.
• ▸after sleep.
• ▸—Stitches in |.
• ▸scapula and I.

breast at intervals.—Painful stiffness in small of back.

Trembling and heaviness of arms; of hands.—Hands numb on

waking.—Painful stiffness of finger-joints—Hands as if too thick; asleep; heavy and

clumsy.—Blue finger-nails.

Quivering and jerking in legs in attacks.—Trembling of legs.—Needle-like

stitches in legs; under heel from within, out—Tingling in feet when sitting —Burning in soles;

with dry feeling —Desquamation of soles at end of fever—Large vesicles, esp. on soles.

Icy coldness of hands and feet. Pain in thumb.

• ▸Intense erythema.
• ▸Vesicles.
• ▸Fungoid growths.
• ▸Erysipelas.
• ▸Large blisters, as from scalds.
• ▸Heavy, brown crusts and scabs.
• ▸Pemphigus.

Redness of skin (hands).—Small vesicles, followed by desquamation.—Sequelé of

• ▸scarlatina.
• ▸—Favours rapid healing of wounds.
• ▸—Fungoid growths, esp.
• ▸syphilitic.

• ▸Compare: Crot.
• ▸t.
• ▸, jatro.
• ▸, Euphorb.
• ▸(bot.
• ▸); Canth.
• ▸(erythema; vesication of skin;

scarlatina); Caps. (burning pains < by cold water); Ars.

Compare: Croton; Jatropha; Canth; Anacard.

Sixth to thirtieth potency.