Shepherd's Purse (CAPSELLA)
"Shepherd's purse," says Gerarde, "stayeth bleeding in any part of the body,
whether the juice or the decoction thereof be drunk, or whether it be used poultice-wise, or in
both, or any way else. In a clyster it cureth the bloody flux; it healeth green and bleeding
wounds; it is marvellous good for inflammations new beginning and for all diseases which must
be checked back and cooled." Gerarde adds that the decoction will stop diarrhoea, blood-spitting,
Europe, it has accompanied Europeans in all their migrations, and established itself wherever
but it luxuriates in the richest. Burnett noticed that it flourished best in the neighbourhood of
dunghills, and the odour of the tincture is much suggestive thereof. Some have seen in the seed-
vessel the signature of the shape of the uterus, and Burnett found in it an organ remedy of vast
importance. The @ tincture, he said, is the best thing to give for menses that have been checked;
for uterine hemorrhages he preferred the attenuations. He has observed it cause sexual
excitement like Cantharis. It aided Burnett in the cure of an inveterate case of gall-stones, the
reverses this. He had treated a lady for jaundice, from which she made a good recovery; but there
came on a peculiar discharge after the catamenial flux. It was of brownish-green blood and was
attended with obscure abdominal pains. The cervix uteri was swollen and soft but not ulcerated.
Dudgeon failed to cure this; but Rafinesque, of Paris, after trying other remedies, succeeded with
Thlasp. The 6th had immediate good effect. Rafinesque afterwards gave the © and then again the
6th, and in a few weeks the cure was complete. Dudgeon's article on 7h/asp. is the most
complete we have. He quotes a case of Rademacher's showing the action of Th/asp. on uric acid
excretion. A woman whom Rademacher had relieved ten years before of a large quantity of
urinary sand, again presented herself; her abdominal cavity was full of water, extremely swollen,
and she was passing urine of a light red colour with bloody sediment. Thlasp. @, 30 drops five
times a day, was given solely with the idea of stopping the hematuria. But the result was—a
more copious discharge of urinary sand than ever before; the urine increased, the dropsy
disappeared, and the woman was cured. Dudgeon also quotes a case of Kinil's: A woman had
strangury three weeks after confinement, she could not retain her urine, which dribbled away
drop by drop. Thlasp. ©, 30 drops five times a day, removed the strangury at once, and in a few
days the urine could be retained and became clear without sediment. "Dysuria of old persons,
when the passing is painful and there is at the same time spasmodic retention of it" is an
indication given by Heer. Dudgeon's own cases are no less striking: (/) A lady, 76, had
rheumatic muscular pains in various parts, and the most abundant secretion of uric acid, which
passed away with every discharge of urine. Sometimes small calculi formed and then there was
much pain in their passage along the ureter, but generally it passed in the form of coarse sand,
which formed a thick layer at the bottom of the utensil. This sand continued to pass after the
to other dyspeptic symptoms had unusually large discharges of coarse uric acid, coming away in
was suffering from the presence of a calculus in left ureter. She had previously passed much
refers to a case of Harper's illustrating the action of Th/asp. on the bowels. An elderly lady had
suffered for years from a copious discharge of muco-pus, sometimes mixed with blood,
sometimes nearly all blood, which passed from the bowels after each evacuation. She had been
under high homeeopathy, oxygen treatment, and for a long time under Harper himself without
effect, when he gave 7hlasp. © in five-drop doses and cured the case in a few days. With Thlasp.
1x I saved a lady who had been curetted several times with small success from a further
curetting, which was advised as being essential to the cure. 7h/asp. stopped the hemorrhages,
restored the periods to their proper term, and the patient immediately began to recover her
strength, which had been drained to the last degree. There has been no return of the trouble.
Peculiar Sensations are: As of needles or shocks from a battery between end of sternum and
umbilicus. As if neck and left shoulder would break with pain. Symptoms are > bending over.
Hemorrhages are profuse, periodic; blood dark, clotted. The toes are affected along with
cramping pain in stomach.
Fixed ideas: as if a strange person were at his side; as if the soul were separated from
the body; as if the body, esp. the limbs, were of glass and would break easily; as if a living
animal were in the abdomen.—Sensation as if whole body very thin and delicate and could not
resist least attack; as if continuity of body would be dissolved.—Insane women will not be
touched or approached.—Imbecility after vaccination, restless, drivelling —Mental
dejection.—Anxious apprehensions respecting the future —Disquiet, which renders everything
troublesome and repugnant.—The merest trifle occasions pensiveness.—Music causes him to
weep, with trembling of the feet—Hurried, with ill-humour, talks hastily.—Indisposition to any
kind of intellectual labour.—Mental depression after childbirth.—Very depressed, sad,
irritable —Scrupulous about small things —Feels she cannot exist any longer; quiet, shunning
every body.—Aversion to life-—Moroseness and peevishness.—Overexcited, quarrelsome; easily
angered about trifles—The child is excessively obstinate —In reading and writing he uses wrong
speech and of reflection; seeking for words when in conversation.—Incapacity for
reflection.—Cretinism.
Emaciation and deadness of affected parts.—AII manifestations excessive;
their advent insidious.—Shootings in limbs (outer parts), and joints.—Burning darting
veins in the skin.—Jerking of some of the limbs and of some of the muscles.—The flesh feels as if
beaten off the bones.—Sensation of lightness of the body when walking —(Edema about the
joints; affects prominently epithelia, first causing hardening, hypertrophy; then
softening.—Stitches in various parts, changing to burning. —Tearing and pulsative pains, as if the
parts affected were ulcerated.—Inflammatory swellings, with redness. —Sufferings after being
overheated, drinking tea, or eating fat meat, or onions.—Bad effects from beer, fat food acids,
sweets, tobacco, and wine; from the abuse of Su/phur and Mercury.—One-sided complaints-
sleep in evening. —Many of the symptoms are < during repose and by heat, esp. by that of the
bed; they are > by movement, cold, and perspiration —Many of the symptoms manifest
themselves chiefly on |. side—Affections of the r. abdominal ring; wings of the nose; loins;
weakness, with sustained mental powers.—Frequent jerking of upper part of body.—Violent
ebullition of blood in evening, with pulsation in all the arteries, < by movement, > on sitting
persons; of falling; of accidents —Flushes of heat.—< In the afternoon; after midnight; while
chewing; stretching the affected limb; while urinating —> While drawing up the limb.
Head feels empty, as in intoxication, esp. in morning, with nausea.—Weakness and
confusion of head, as from torpor, or paralysis of brain.—Vertigo, as from motion of a
swing.—Vertigo when rising from a seat, or when lying down, or else when looking into the
air.—Vertigo on closing the eyes, disappears as soon as he opens them; or on stooping; or on
looking upwards or sideways.—Headache in morning, as after stooping, or after too profound a
sleep, with redness of the face —The headache is > from looking upwards, and when turning the
head backwards.—Headache: < from sexual excess, overheating, overlifting; > exercising in open
air.—Dull, stupefying, headache.—Headache, < by stooping, > by bending head
backwards.—Heaviness of head, esp. in morning on waking; in occiput (cerebellum), with ill-
humour and dislike to conversation.—Headache, as if forehead would split, with internal
shivering, > by walking in open air.—Pressive headache, with shocks in forehead and
temples——Compressive headache, esp. in temples.—Pain as if a tight hoop encircled forehead, on
waking.—(Headache, as if a tight hoop encircled forehead up till noon; eyelids heavy as
part.—Neuralgia going from before backward.—Nervous, sycotic, or syphilitic
headaches.—Meningitis of sycotic children —Sunstroke: everything seemed jumping, < from
sitting up, or from talking a long time, or closing eyes.—Semilateral tearing in the sinciput and
face, extending into zygomatic process, principally morning and evening.—Tearing jerking in
temples.—Excessively painful tenderness of |. side of head, and also of the hair, at night, when
lying down, and when touched.—Hair becomes hard, dry, and lustreless, and falls out.—Hair thin,
grows slowly, splits; brittle, looks crimped.—Pressive drawing in the temporal muscles, esp.
head (and face) wrapped up warm.—Itching and gnawing in scalp.—The scalp is very painful to
herpes on the head, extending to eyebrows; dandruff.—White, scaly, peeling-off eruption over the
scalp, extending over the forehead, temples, ears, and neck.—(Flat black wart on r. parietal
smelling of honey (sweetish), on uncovered parts of head (face and hands), with dryness of the
covered parts, and of those on which one lies, mostly when first going to sleep; > after
Pressure in eyes, and smarting, as if sand were in them.—Tearing in
eyebrows.—Shootings in eyes, in a bright light, or in a keen air.—Painful stitch through centre of
conjunctivitis—(Conjunctivitis of 1. eye, with violent pain across forehead and in outer side of
eyeball, constantly recurrent from childhood and due to suppressed eruption.—R. T.
blood.—Pupils dilated —Inflammatory swelling of lids, with hardness ——Burning eruption on
swollen, and a foreign body in eye.—Ptosis; lids fall down several times a day.—Lids heavy as
lead.—Inflammatory softening of inner surface of lids.—Red and painful nodosities on margins of
hard knots——Verrucz and tumours like condylomata.—Purulent and itching pimples between
eyebrows.—Condylomata in eyebrows.—Sensation of heat and of dryness in external
canthi—Lachrymation, esp. in |. eye, when walking in open air (the tears do not run off, but
remain standing in the eye).—The eye must be warmly covered, when uncovered it pains at once,
and it feels as if cold air were streaming out of the head through the eye.—Nocturnal
agglutination of the lids.—Weakness of the eyes; obscure sight—Clouded sight, when reading,
with sensation of drowsiness.—Sight confused as if directed through a
stripes which frighten her.).—Flames of light, mostly yellow; looking into light of day sees spots
like bottles of water moving; a luminous disc shining like a firefly —Sensation of dryness in
eyes.—In the dark it seems as if falling down of luminous lights or sparks alongside of the eye,
during the day and in the light it is as if dark drops were falling down.—The objects appear
smaller before the r. eye —Short-sighted.
Otalgia, with squeezing compression and violent shootings, esp. in evening.—Stitches
into ear from the neck.—Sensation as if inner ear were swollen, with increased difficulty of
in |. ear, with cracking when swallowing saliva——Hammering and tearing in ear, in evening, in
bed, with frequent emission of urine, and coldness in legs and feet.—Pressive pain behind
ears.—Orifice of 1. meatus blocked up by a polypus, of raspberry-cellular vessels; pale red,
bleeding readily when touched; muco-purulent discharge; deafness; shooting pains.
Bleeding in nasal operations. Especially passive haemorrhage.
Nose red and hot.—Red eruption on nose, at times humid.—Swelling in the alz nasi,
overheated.—Dry coryza, which becomes fluent in open air, with continued headache.—Fluent
coryza, with cough and hoarseness.—Greenish and fetid discharge from the nose.—Blowing from
the nose of a large quantity of thick green mucus, mixed with pus and blood; later of dry, brown
scales, with mucus, which conies from the frontal sinuses and firmly adheres to the swollen
upper portion of the nostrils —Accumulation of mucus in posterior nares.—Chronic catarrh after
brine of fish, or of fermenting beer.
Heat in face, sometimes only transient, or else with burning redness.—Heat and redness
of whole face, with fine nets of veins, as if marbled.—Circumscribed burning redness of
brown blotches (freckles) on face.—Faceache, originating in 1. cheek-bone near the ear, extending
through teeth to nose, through eyes to temples into head; the painful spots burn like fire, and are
very sensitive to the rays of the sun.—Neuralgia of trigeminus after suppressed gonorrhcea or
eruption on ear.—Facial pains tending to spread to neck and head, chiefly 1. side (many cases
which he does not lie).—Scabious, itching eruption on face.—Red and painful nodosities on
sensation in upper lip, near corner of mouth.—Upper lip sensitive-—Wart on upper lip.—Thick
upper lip with pea-sized tumour on its parenchyma, enlarging when taking cold.—Lips pale,
swollen, peeling.—Flat ulcers on insides of lips and corners of mouth.—Eruption of pimples on
lips and chin.—Shootings in lower jaw, which seem to pass outwards through the ear —Cracking
of articulation of jaw.—Fungus on |. lower jaw, more angry in damp weather —Swelling of
submaxillary glands.
Flat, white ulcers on the inside of the lips, and on the corners of the mouth.—Aphthze
in mouth (ulcers; mouth feels as if burnt).—Considerable swelling of salivary glands, with
increased saliva in mouth.—Sanguineous, or bitter saliva—Pain as of excoriation in tip of tongue,
tongue, transparent, bluish red, grey, and, as it were, gelatinous.—Ranula and epulis with excess
of venosity everywhere (Ussher).—Taste in mouth sweet as sugar, with gonorrhcea.—Slowness of
speech.
Toothache after drinking tea, with pressive pain extending into jaw.—Toothache with
acute drawing pains, esp. during mastication.—The roots of the teeth become carious; or the teeth
become carious from the side; the crown of the tooth remains sound.—On blowing nose, a
pressing pain in hollow tooth at the side of it.—The teeth crumble off—Teeth crusted with tartar;
extremely sensitive to cold water.—Dirty-yellow teeth.—Gnawing in (carious) teeth, with painful
sensibility of whole side of head, greatly < by contact with cold things, or by mastication.—Gums
swollen (inflamed, with dark red streaks on them), with pain of excoriation —Alveolar periostitis
Roughness and scraping in throat.—Pressure and pain as from excoriation, in throat
and palate, during deglutition—A feeling of upward pressure in soft palate.-—Necessity to
swallow.—Shootings from gullet to ears—Swelling of tonsils and throat.—Ulcers in throat and
mouth, like chancres—Accumulation of a large quantity of tenacious mucus in mouth, which is
hawked up with difficulty.—Painful swallowing, esp. empty swallowing, or that of
saliva.—Throat feels raw, dry, as from a plug, or as if it were constricted when
Sargent, of Chicago.)
10. Appetite-—Mawkish and sweetish taste in the mouth, in the evening, and after a
meal.—Taste: sweet; of rotten eggs, mornings.—Bread has a dry and bitter taste —Craves
salt—Food never seems sufficiently salt —Thirst only at night, and in morning.—Appetite for
cold drinks and food.—Unable to eat breakfast (a keynote of Burnett's).—Aversion to fresh meat
and potatoes.—Speedy satiety, when eating.—Disagreeable sensations after eating fat food or
onions.—While masticating food mouth becomes very dry.—After a meal great indolence, or
dejection, with anguish, and palpitation of the heart, or great inflation and sufferings from
flatulence.
Risings of food, after a meal.—Bitter or putrid risings.—Continuous eructations of
of pit of stomach.—The fluid which he drinks falls into the stomach with a gurgling
noise.—Rancid risings, esp. after fat food —Nausea and uneasiness in region of
stomach.—Vomiting of acid serum and of food.—Cramp in stomach, with excessive < towards
evening.—Pressure in scrobiculus after a meal, with pain when touched.—Throbbing in
scrobiculus.—Anguish in scrobiculus, which extends upwards into head.
Painful pressure in hepatic region.—After a dose of 30th headache comes on, and
swelling in hepatic region and violent pain under r. shoulder going through to breast and down to
contractive and spasmodic pains.—Flatulence, as if an animal were crying in the abdomen.—Pot-
evacuation).—Stitches in the hypochondria.—Sensation as if something alive were in
hypogastrium (as if the abdominal muscles were pushed outward by the arm of a foetus, but
painless).—Soreness of navel—Pain in abdomen, as from constriction of the
in groins, when walking and standing, with shootings along thighs when sitting —Painful
swelling of inguinal glands, sometimes with drawing as far as knee.—Intussusception of
intestines.—Yellow or brownish spots on abdomen.—Zona.
Constipation which continues several days (obstinate, as from inactivity or
from intussusception of the intestines), sometimes after pollutions—Tenesmus, with rigidity of
the penis.—Stool in hard balls.—Difficult evacuation of hard, large faeces, covered with
blood.—Discharge of blood, during the evacuation.—Diarrheea: pale-yellow water is forcibly
expelled, with much noisy discharge of wind; with colic; < after eating; watery, painless; bright
yellow, watery; streaming out with much gas, as if the cork were pulled out of a full jug,
excessively exhausting, short and difficult breathing, anxiety, intermitting pulse, acute pressive
pain in back opposite pit of stomach, with feeling as if no blood could circulate there, rapid
disappearance of fat—In morning (after breakfast), periodically returning diarrhoea, always at the
same hour.—Stools oily or greasy.—With stools, sensations in rectum as if boiling lead were
passing through.—Burning soreness in anus, lasting all day.—Much flatus hard to expel, anus
feels constricted, incarcerated flatus behind r. side of diaphragm.—Pains in anus < from
motion.—Painful contraction of anus, during the evacuation.—Burning sensation in anus, and
between buttocks.—Condylomata at anus.—Heemorrhoidal tumours swollen, paining worse while
sitting.—Swelling of hemorrhoidal veins.—Pressing, itching, and burning in the hemorrhoidal
vessels, with dragging —Offensive perspiration at anus and in perineum.—Fistula in
ano.—Fissure of anus.—Tearings along rectum.
Kidneys inflamed; feet swollen.—Diabetes.—Stitch to bladder from
interrupted.—Frequent want to urinate, with profuse emission of a watery urine, also at
night—The urine foams; the foam remains long on the urine.—Involuntary secretion, of urine; at
night; when coughing; in drops after having urinated.—The bladder (and rectum) feels paralysed,
region of bladder, with painful drawing up of testes —Urine yellowish or wine-coloured.—Orifice
trickling of urine, after having urinated Sensation as if a drop were flowing into urethra, after
emission of urine, and at other times.—Burning sensation in urethra, esp. in morning and during
day; also after and during emission of urine.—Shootings in urethra, during emission of urine, and
at other times.—Jerking, voluptuous formication in fossa navicularis.—Smarting in sexual part of
females, during emission of urine.—Itching in urethra——Stream small and split, next day
yellowish discharge from urethra, with chordee.
condylomata, and other excrescences about vulva.—Ulcers on internal surface of vulva; vulva has
a sore, smarting feeling.—Itching and burning smarting, as from excoriation, in genital
organs.—Burning and biting in vagina—Vagina extremely sensitive during coition—Recto-
in genital organs, extending to hypogastrium.—Ovaries, affections of —Swelling and excoriation
of labia.—Warts on orifice of uterus, with shootings and burning sensation when
menstrual nisus; distressing pain, burning when walking or riding; must lie down; pain extends
squeezing, shooting pains in region of |. ovary.—Pain, located in ovaries or duct, from over-
physiological action—Menses: too early and too short; scanty, with terrible distressing pain in 1.
ovarian and iliac region.—Before menses: excitement and pulsation of arteries, back of head,
headache and toothache; labour-like abdominal pains, tenesmus and fainting; much
perspiration.—During menses: tiredness, palpitation, spasmodic weeping; restlessness in legs;
retching, pressing in stomach, distension, pain in abdomen and back; bearing down out of genital
organs; burning in varicose veins of genitals; sensitiveness and swelling of breasts; general
coldness.—A fter menses: tiredness; rush of blood upward; toothache; sleeplessness;
moist, bleeding and offensive.—Leucorrhcea: mucous; is almost green.—Abortion at end of third
month, commencing with a scanty discharge of blood for five days, then more and more
profuse.—Bright red or clotted blood with bearing down in third month of pregnancy (cured with
causing cutting in bladder with urging to urinate; pains in |. sacro-iliac articulation, running into
groin.—Labour: pains weak or ceasing; contractibility hindered by sycotic complications; pains
in sacro-iliac articulation running into |. groin; pain from walking, insupportable, must lie down.
Spermatic cord sensitive to concussion of walking or riding.
Venereal diseases. —Affections in general appearing in male or
female genital organs, particularly on the external organs; affections on I. side
particularly —Profuse perspiration on genitals, esp. scrotum; sweet-smelling, like honey; staining
linen yellow.—(Relaxed scrotum with sexual weakness and lethargy; unfit for strain —R. T.
testes as if they moved.—Condylomata on glans and prepuce, moist, itching and suppurating, esp.
excrescence on inner side of prepuce; like fig-warts—Smooth, red excrescence behind
glans.—Many red pedunculated condylomata surrounding glans ——Round, unclean, elevated
ulcers with red margins, moist and painful—Sycotic cauliflower excrescences; fig-warts smelling
like old cheese or herring brine.—Shootings in scrotum, in penis, and along spermatic cord, as far
esp. night and morning, with lancinations in urethra—Nightly painful erections causing
sleeplessness.—Irresistible inclination to onanism even during sleep.—Nocturnal emissions; wake
him; followed by heaviness and ill-humour.—Pollutions with sensation of stricture in
offensive smell.—Flow of prostatic fluid.—Prostatic affections from suppressed or badly-treated
gonorrhcea.—Blenorrhcea along with otorrhcea; penis constantly erect and prepuce inflamed
stream forked; discharge yellow; green; watery; with warts; red erosions on glans; subacute and
chronic cases, esp. when injections have been used and prostate is involved.—Gonorrhcea with a
soft lump having an abrasion on it on |. side of freenum preputize, lump small and
painless —Profuse and watery discharge from penis——Renewed gonorrhcea after coitus.
Voice low.—Sensation of a skin in the larynx.—Polypus of vocal
mucus in trachea.—Shortness of breathing from fulness and constriction in hypochondria and
upper abdomen.—Asthma < at night, with red face; coughing spells, with sensation of adhesion
of lungs.—Asthma with gonorrhcea, without having been exposed to contagion.—Asthma with
little cough, but with sensation of something growing fast In region of 1. lower ribs.—Asthma of
sycotic children (Goullon).—Respiration short and quick, < from deep inspiration and talking; >
from lying on affected side, but pains compel him to lie on back.—Convulsive asthma.—Shooting
and tingling in trachea——Cough in morning, excited by a tickling in trachea—Cough, excited by
a choking sensation.—Sputa: green; taste like old cheese.—Expectoration of small grey, yellow,
or green gobbets, when coughing.—Cough, with expectoration of yellow mucus, and pains in
scrobiculus in afternoon.—Cough only during day, or in morning after rising, and in evening after
lying down.—Cough as soon as one eats.—During evening cough after lying down, the
expectoration becomes loose; easier when he turns from I. to r. side.
Obstructed respiration, with violent thirst for water, and great anxiety.—Spasms of
lungs from drinking cold water.—Stitching in chest, from drinking anything cold.—Hot rising into
irritation which excites coughing.—Pain in chest, as from internal adhesion.—Pressure on chest,
sometimes after a meal.—Agitation, and sensation of swelling in chest—Hzemorrhage from
lungs; quantity very great and terribly offensive —Blue colour of skin round clavicles—Brown
spots on chest.
Cramp in heart.—Ebullition of blood in chest, and violent and audible palpitation of
of heart—Anxious palpitation of heart when waking in the morning.—Visible palpitation without
anxiety.—Stitches in region of heart.—Pulse slow and weak in morning, in evening accelerated
and full—In evening violent pulsations.—Swelling of the veins.
Uneasiness in nape of neck and chest.—Tension in skin on nape when
neck.—Cracking in cervical vertebree on making certain movements with head.—Small red
pimples on neck close together —Swelling of glands of neck.—Swelling of veins of neck.—Spinal
extending from the small of the back to between shoulder-blades —(Pains from middle to lower
and thighs, while sitting; after long sitting prevents standing erect.—Pain, as of a fracture, and
stiffness in loins, back, and nape, esp. in morning, after rising —(Weakness from injury to lower
back followed by abscess, vesical weakness, enuresis with a clear gleet and balanitis—R. T.
hollow below coccyx.
Profuse perspiration under axillae.—Brown spots under the arms, like nzevus
throbbing, from shoulder to ends of fingers.—Wrenching pain in shoulder and arm, with
cracking.—Digging drawing in arms, as if in bones or periosteum.—Sensation of coldness in arms
at night.—Lancinations in arms and joints.—Cracking in elbow-joint when stretching
marbled spots on forearm.—Wrist and elbow of r. arm feel as if gripped by a hand
in hands.—Warts on hands; very numerous, esp. on dorsa; horny, painful——Brown colour of
dorsum of hand.—Coldness torpor, and paleness in fingers and finger-tips, extending sometimes
to forearms.—(Erysipelatous swelling and) tingling and shootings in finger-tips—Red and painful
swelling in finger-tips.—Nails are crippled, discoloured, crumbling off—Suppuration of finger-
nails.—The pains in the arms are < when hanging down, or when exposed to heat; they are > by
movement, cold, and after perspiration.
Lower limbs feel like wood when walking in open air.—Tension from hip-
atrophy of r. leg with coldness —Drawings in legs.—The hip-joint feels as if it were
weakness and lassitude in legs, esp. when going up stairs.—Heaviness and stiffness of legs, when
walking (they feel as if made of wood).—Profuse perspiration on thighs and genital
thighs.—Cracking in joints of knees and feet, when stretching them.—Suppurating pustules on
knees.—Gonorrhceal rheumatism in fibrous part of knee-joint.—Pains in feet and ankles after
suppressed gonorrhcea, could not walk.—Pain in heel as if gone to sleep.—Stitches above heel in
tendo Achillis—White nodosities, with violent itching in toes.—Inflammatory red swelling in
ends of toes or instep, with pain and tension when treading, and during movement.—Numbness
of |. foot—Nets of veins, as if marbled, on soles of feet—Red, marbled spots on
Painful sensitiveness of skin.—Itching shootings in skin, esp. in evening and at
night—Purulent pimples, like variola——Warts on any part of the body, with little necks, called
fig-warts, tubular warts, same size all the way out; "mother's marks.".—Warts, hard, cleft, and
parts —The eruptions burn violently after scratching.—Universal psoriasis.—Sycotic
excrescences, smelling like old cheese, or like the brine of fish.—White, scaly, dry, mealy
herpes.—Sycosis of beard cured with single doses of © after failure of much other treatment (R.
white) mottled spots on the skin.—The majority of cutaneous symptoms are > by touch.
Urgent inclination to sleep in evening.—Sleep retarded, in consequence of agitation
and dry heat.—Nocturnal sleeplessness, with agitation and coldness of body.—Unrefreshing
nocturnal sleep.—Distressing, anxious dreams, of dangers and death, of falling from a height,
asleep it suddenly seems as if a chair were standing in the middle of the bed; tries to move it but
cannot stir, cannot utter a sound.—Continuous sleeplessness, with painfulness of the parts on
which he lies.—Sleeplessness with apparitions as soon as he closes his eyes; they disappear on
opening them.—Goes to sleep late on account of heat and restlessness.—Lascivious dreams,
without emission of semen, with painful erections on waking.
Shivering, with yawning, after midnight.—The warm air seems cold, and the sun has
no power to warm him.—Shivering, every morning, without thirst—Shivering and shaking, with
internal and external coldness (and thirst), followed immediately by perspiration.—Chilliness in
attacks at various times in the day, but mostly in the evening.—Chilliness on 1. side, which feels
cold to the touch.—Chill without thirst after midnight and in morning.—Shivering every evening
(at six o'clock), with external heat, dryness of the mouth, and thirst.—Heat in the evening, esp. in
the face.—Dry heat of the covered parts—Burning in the face without redness.—Perspiration at
the commencement of sleep.—Perspiration on parts uncovered, with dry heat of covered
parts —Anxious, at times cold, sweat.—Perspiration after the chill, without any intervening
heat.—Perspiration, at times oily (staining the clothes yellow), or fetid, or smelling sweet like
honey.—General perspiration, but not on the head—When walking in morning profuse
perspiration; the most profuse on the head.—Perspiration only during sleep, disappearing at once
as soon as he awakens.
Characteristics—The American Arbor Vite is a "spiry evergreen attaining a height of from 20
to 50 feet, though generally not above 40, and a diameter of about 10 to 20 feet through the
greatest breadth of foliage." It abounds in the upper zones of North America, from Pennsylvania
northwards, where it "often forms what are commonly known as cedar-swamps. It grows upon
the rocky banks of rivers, and in low, swampy spots, blossoming from May until June and
maturing its fruit in autumn. The Arbor Vite assumes a conical form with such true lines as to
appear 'clipped,' thus forming one of our most valued high-hedge trees" (Millspaugh). Thuja was
introduced to France from Canada in the reign of Francis I. of France, and it has now an
honoured place in most of our gardens and shrubberies. The native habitat of Thuja is not
without its importance in relation to therapeutics. It loves swamps; it is Hahnemann's typical
antisycotic and Grauvogl's hydrogenoid. Thuja is one of Hahnemann's discoveries. Most of the
remedies of his materia medica had been known in a fashion before his time. Of the therapeutic
properties of Thuja practically nothing was known till Hahnemann proved it. Subsequent
observers have only confirmed or added to Hahnemann's pathogenesis. Hahnemann found in
Thuja the antidote to the miasm of the condition which he termed Sycosis, meaning thereby the
constitutional disease resulting from constitutional gonorrhoea, and having as its characteristic
manifestation excrescences, sometimes dry in the form of warts, more frequently soft, spongy,
emitting a fetid fluid with a sweetish odour something like herring brine, bleeding readily and
having the coxcomb or cauliflower form. Teste remarks that in the period when the doctrine of
Signatures prevailed the "resinous callosities of the stems and leaves of Thuja occ. might have
seemed an indication that the plant was the specific for sycosis and warts." Teste dismisses this
idea, but he asks whether resinous substances which have the power of modifying vegetable
juices in a peculiar way may not affect the animal fluids in the same manner. He includes Castor.
in his 7huja group, and gives an instance in which it acted on fig-warts. Castor. is the product of
an animal which subsists on the bark of resinous trees.—Hering gives this as the action of Thuja
(Z) on the fluids: "dissolution of fluids of the body, which become acrid, probably caused by
Thuja perverting lymphatic secretions; disturbs digestion and sanguification"; and this (2) in the
vegetative sphere: "A surplus of producing life; nearly unlimited proliferation of pathological
vegetations, condylomata, warty sycotic excrescences, spongy tumours, and spongy pock
exudates [which] organise hastily; all morbid manifestations are excessive, but appear quietly, so
that the beginning of the diseased state is scarcely known." Boenninghausen found Thuja both
preventive and curative in an epidemic of small-pox. It aborted the process and prevented pitting.
In veterinary practice Thuja has proved curative in farcy and in "grease." These facts open up
another great branch of Thuja's homeeopathicity—its anti-vaccinal action. This extension was
made by Kunkel and Goullon following on Boenninghausen's experience with small-pox. On this
subject no one has written more forcibly or lucidly than Burnett (Vaccinosis and its Cure by
Thuja). "Arbor Vitee: nomen omen," says Burnett on his title-page. And in his hands Thuja has
proved indeed a tree of life to numberless sufferers from the vaccinal taint. By "vaccinosis"
Burnett means the disease known as vaccinia, the result of vaccination, p/us "that profound and
often long-lasting morbid constitutional state engendered by the vaccine virus." To this state
Thuja 1s homeeopathic, and therefore curative and preventive of it. Burnett makes the profound
observation, which I can confirm, that the vaccine virus does not need to "take" (that is, to set up
vaccinia) in order to produce the vaccinal dyscrasia: that "not a few persons date their ill-health
from a so-called unsuccessful vaccination." So that vaccinosis may exist apart from vaccinia.
The antivaccinal action of Thuja is part of its antisycotic action: vaccinia is a sycotic disease.
Burnett gives the case of an infant ten weeks old, whom he was called to see as it was supposed
to be dying. He found it ghastly white and in collapse. There was nothing to account for this
except that the baby had had its wet-nurse changed two or three days before. The wet-nurse was
questioned and declared herself quite well and looked it; but "her arm was a little painful." She
had been revaccinated in the Marylebone Workhouse the day before she took charge of the
patient. Burnett found the vaccine eruption just turning into the pustular stage. He concluded that
the infant was sucking the vaccinal poison with its nurse's milk. He gave Thuja 6 to both infant
and nurse. The baby gradually improved the same day, and next morning was, though still pale,
practically well, and the vaccinal vesicles on the nurse's arm had withered. Burnett quotes a case
of vaccinal rash in an infant following the vaccination of its mother, who was nursing it. The
effects of chronic vaccinosis are protean. Prominent among them are neuralgias (of which
Burnett gives many examples), morbid skin disorders, indigestion, and constipation; warts and
new growths of many kinds. In these effects a favourite method of Burnett's was to give a course
of twenty-four numbered powders, only three or four of them medicated with Thuja 30; one to be
taken at bedtime. With the same prescription he cured many cases of paralysis, his indications
being: Left side of body; very chilly; < in morning, in wet weather, and in cold: with these
indications present he also found enlargements of the spleen to dissolve. In 1889 I was consulted
by Mr. A., 38, about a lump, or rather two lumps, in the right breast, which was like that of a girl
approaching puberty, the left breast being quite flat and normal. There was a hard, not sharply
defined lump to the right of the nipple, and a smaller one to the left of it, but freely movable, the
larger somewhat tender and irritated by the pressure of the brace. The tumours had existed
eighteen months and came on at a time of much anxiety when his wife died of consumption. His
paternal grandmother and two aunts had died of cancer. He had been twice vaccinated, but on the
second occasion the arm did not "rise." As a small boy his hands were covered with warts.—At
felt with difficulty. No pain. The medicine was repeated and when next seen some time later the
patient was absolutely well. A very much vaccinated lady developed at the climacteric
indurations in both breasts, especially the right. Menses were accompanied by severe neuralgic
pectoris of such intensity that I did not repeat it. The indurations disappeared, but in the course of
the cure an eruption closely resembling small-pox developed over her breasts on more than one
occasion. The first case I treated homeeopathically was one of new growths—a cluster of small
warts on the forehead of a boy which had lasted eighteen months and followed the scratch of a
cat. Thuja @ in fractional doses and Thuja © painted on cured permanently in three weeks. A
gentleman, about 50, consulted me recently about a wart on the right side of his head. He was
bald, and the wart was black and unsightly. It had been growing some months, and he was
somewhat anxious about it as his father had had a similar wart develop in the same locality at the
same age, and it had never left him. My patient had been twice vaccinated. Thuja 30, twenty-
eight powders, one in seven medicated, one at bedtime. In one month there was much reduction;
Thuja was repeated, and in little over two months the wart was gone. Burnett says Thuja is the
remedy for fatty tumours, which he regards as sycotic in nature. 7huja not only produces
symptoms of the secondary stage of gonorrhceal and vaccinal affections, it also produces
urethritis and a variolous eruption. Dudgeon has reported acute urethritis with yellow discharge
gave Thuja 3 to a patient as a prophylactic against small-pox. This patient and another who took
it for the same purpose developed simple urethritis. Mersch proved Thuja @ on himself and some
others: (/) M. N. had rose-coloured blotches on the back, and several days after leaving off the
medicine had warts develop on the outer side of the root of the thumb. These were still present
three years after, though smaller and softer. (2) Mersch himself, who took Thuja for fifteen days,
had heavy sensation in the head on waking, an eruption of desquamative annular blotches, and
from the twelfth day a tearing along the right arm which compelled him to keep the arm flexed
for eight days, < attempting to extend the arm; slightly > by heat. A small soft wart appeared at
the external portion of right middle finger. This disappeared a month after the proving was
ended. ("< By extension" is a characteristic of Thuja; it = cracking in joints. The arm symptoms
are also < when the limb hangs down, which is also an extension.) Apropos of the annular scaly
blotches, I had a case of psoriasis of the legs in a youth which was benefited by Thuja more than
by any other remedy, though the 7huja was given for some other affection. A patient came to
of a remedy producing the symptom, but selected Thuja. Two doses of the 200th and one of the
15th were taken. The man was at the time in the hands of an eminent dentist for his teeth, which
for five years had been a great trouble to him on account of their extreme sensitiveness to cold;
the gums were in a deplorable state and the teeth were encrusted with tartar. After receiving the
Thuja the extreme sensitiveness of the teeth disappeared in one night; then the offensive odour of
the semen. In four days the patient again saw the dentist, who was amazed to find his gums quite
sound. Moreover, the patient had lost an oppression of the chest which had been troubling him
cure of a mental state by Thuja 30x. He remarks that, following the advice of Kunkel, he gives
only a single dose of Thuja, one or two drops of the tincture on sugar or milk, at bedtime. When
he has given a second dose the following night he has observed new symptoms "Thuja in fact has
a very marked action on sleep, and its symptoms appear by preference at night—the headache, for
example." This is the case: Miss R., 40; complained of her head, especially at certain moments,
when ideas which did not concern her in the least came to her as if some one else was thinking by
her side. Thuja produces a confusion in the thoughts which patients cannot rid themselves of on
account of great weakness and pain in the head. This patient had for months been attending on a
paralysed sister, frequently getting up in the night and worrying herself about numberless things.
Her nervous system was very impressionable, and for weeks had reached a point of extreme
over-excitement. She could no longer calm herself, and in addition she sneezed and coughed
much. The problem was to give her sleep and take away the pain in the head. Even when she was
not obliged to getup she could not get sleep. Her eyes were also very much irritated. The patient
afterwards described her condition thus: "I felt in the anterior part of the head, principally the
forehead, a sensation as if lead were compressing my eyes; these were inflamed, < by light, > in
open air. Before going to sleep I felt a congestion in the head with headache; at the same time
queer, confused ideas which changed like a flash and fell upon the most odd things. These were
> when I opened my eyes or sat up. Before my eyes images and statues arranged themselves. If I
wished to think of something sensible, in the twinkling of an eye I lost the thread of my ideas.
All this happened at night; during the day the wicked sprites did not appear. My head and eyes
pained me when there was much movement, as when several people were speaking at once." The
effect of the dose she described thus After having taken the Thuja I tasted a sweet repose; the
next morning a complete transformation had taken place in the head, the weight was gone, the
eyes were more fresh, the brain free." Goullon cured a lady who had had headache for a year; on
waking felt as if a tight hoop enclosed forehead, not passing away till noon. Eyelids heavy as
wart-like, about the size of a sixpence, on left temple. It began as a slight roughness and itched at
times. Also growth about the same size on a hard palate (left), very sore. Much headache, on left
side of the head, throbbing in left temple, and the pains extend into left ear. Cannot sleet after 3
Feet sweat much, offensive; sweats much about groins. 7huja cm was given on October 25th. By
November 15th the growths and all the rest of the symptoms had disappeared. (2) Led by this
same symptom, "almost every night, dreams of falling from a height," Holcombe cured a man,
30, of tertian fever with Thuja cm when a large number of other seemingly well-indicated
5, who had what he graphically terms "urinary tantrums." Two hours after being put to bed they
would wake kicking, crying, and refusing to answer a question. This lasted an hour or more.
Asked if they wanted to urinate they would refuse to answer, strike at attendant, or even say
"No." Finally it was found that if they were taken up and put on the closet they would urinate and
then go to sleep readily. One of the children developed signs of incipient inflammation of the left
hip-joint. The totality led to the selection of Thuja, which was given in the 200th. After the first
night there were no more "tantrums," and in two months the child was perfectly well. This child's
father had had gonorrheea, treated by injection, some years before the patient was born. But the
other child's father had not had gonorrhcea. In the latter case, which was exactly like the former,
seminal emissions better than any other remedy. "Nocturnal seminal emission" is an emphasised
jaw, rapidly increasing in size, ulcerating on the surface, very painful, and filling the mouth with
an ill-smelling secretion. The entire tumour was removed by operation, and also the subjoined
bone. Three weeks later the tumour was as large as before and increased daily. Thuja 1x was
now given. The growth stopped immediately; ulceration ceased; the pain disappeared. In three
a case of scalp tumour in a youth of seventeen. The tumour had existed two years, and had
somewhat the appearance of a bean. It was situated about the posterior edge of the parietal bone,
was devoid of sensation, and the hair had disappeared from it, making it very conspicuous. Thuja
30 was given, a dose every twenty days. In four months the youth was almost cured, in five
months entirely so, the hair having grown again completely over the spot. George Royal (quoted
three months a painless, dry cough. The irritation was only in the throat. There were six small
growths at the back of the throat, and one near the vocal cord. She never had a cough before. Has
leucorrhcea green and excoriating; menses a little too early. Thuja 30 cured the growths and the
257) gives some indications for Thuja in hernia: (1) Women of sycotic history who have a
tendency to /eft-side inguinal hernia after labour (Thuja, high). (2) When babies cry much the
umbilicus protrudes, growing red and sore; especially when the father has a sycotic history. (3)
Left inguinal hernia in infants; child cries all the time, and is only quiet when the left inguinal
region is relieved from pressure, or the thigh is flexed on the abdomen. Boenninghausen observed
this symptom of Thuja, which bears on the action of Thuja on the sides and roots of teeth (a
sycotic symptom), rather than on the crowns: "on blowing nose, a pressing pain in the hollow
tooth, at the side of it." The left ovarian pains of Thuja are remarkable. They are severe,
sometimes burning, extend down thigh, any attempt at exercise and especially walking <; they
occur with every menstrual period, and are generally < before and during the flow. The pain
compels the patient to lie down; but lying on left side <. A keynote of Thuja is: "Frequent
micturition accompanying pains." For example: "In evening, when in bed, terrible hammering
and tearing in the ear, accompanied with micturition every half-hour and coldness of the legs up
to the knees. The desire of Thuja is sudden and urgent, it seems impossible to reach the vessel or
make the necessary preparations, but the patient can control it if compelled. There is severe
cutting as with a knife at the end of micturition after the last drop has passed. Thuja also has
chronic incontinence from paralysis of sphincter vesicze. This is related to the general paretic
xxv. 487) records a case of lichen urticatus in a boy of fourteen, which came into his hands after
a long course of treatment, external, internal, and dietetic, at the hands of allopathic specialists
without result. The rash came periodically in warm weather; patient literally tore himself because
of the irritation. The rash was < on the left (vaccinated side). Thuja 30 was given in infrequent
doses. The spots continued to appear for a week and then disappeared. The skin remained clear
in spite of the patient indulging in all kinds of previously forbidden foods. Among the skin
effects of Thuja the marks and stains must be borne in mind. The skin is mottled and
discoloured; brown or red mottled spots; discoloration of the backs of the hands and
front to occiput and sometimes in temples. Pains mostly came towards night, and were
accompanied with an awful state of fear. The only account she could give of her fear was that
she saw green stripes. Alone or in company, in the dark or in a well-lighted room the dread was
always the same. Three years before, the child had had an abortive attack of scarlatina, treated
with cold compresses. The urine had been abnormal all through the illness, but contained no
first dose, and in a few days the urine became clear. "Floating stripes" before the vision is a
symptom of Thuja. Peculiar Sensations are: As if a strange person were at her side. As if soul
and body were separated. As if under the influence of a superior power. As if whole body were
very thin and delicate; as if its continuity would be dissolved; as if frail and easily broken; as if
if a nail were driven from within outward in vertex. As if a nail were driven into right parietal
bone and left frontal eminence. Lightning-like headache. As if a convex button were pressed on
were being knocked to pieces. Forehead, ears, and eyes as if stabbed. As if knives went tearing
and would be pressed out of head. As of fine sand in eyes. As if a cold stream of air were
blowing through eyes. As if a foreign body in eye. As if flesh were being torn from bones in left
side and back. As if abdominal muscles were being pushed out by arm of a child. As if a living
animal were in abdomen. Sudden bounding in right iliac region as if something alive. As if blood
could not circulate in back opposite pit of stomach. As if boiling lead were passed through
rectum. As if anus would fly to pieces during stool. As if skin of anus were cracked and chapped.
a single drop running along urethra. As if testicles moved. As if something were grown fast in
if lower limbs were elongated. As if muscles of thigh would break down. Lightness in body
from fleabites. A keynote of Cooper's for Thuja is, "its pains keep extending from their original
site." Another indication of his is, "pains > by wrapping up." Thuja is Suited to: (1) Hydrogenoid
constitutions (possessing "an increased capacity to contain water; hence rain, cold, damp
weather, beds, and food that increase the number of molecules of water in the system < the
Lymphatic temperament, in very fleshy persons, dark complexion, black hair, unhealthy skin. (5)
Ailments from vaccination or from suppressed or maltreated gonorrheea. Thuja is a strongly left-
sided medicine (the /eft arm is usually vaccinated). The symptoms are: < By touch (scalp; vertex;
eruption; anus; condylomata; = fingers to bleed); but > pain in eyebrow and in left malar bone.
morning (the sycotic time). < Night. < Cold water; cold: damp weather: change; draught;
breakfast, after eating; after tea; coffee; fat food; onions. < By coitus. < Blowing nose (pain in
side of teeth). < Increasing moon. < Sun; bright light.
(Saba., imaginary diseases). Ozoena with thick green discharge; gleet; gonorrhceal rheumatism;
especially after Mercury, system generally depressed). Balanorrhcea, Jacar. Red chancroid sores,
more excessive; Thuja, sweat on uncovered parts only). Condylomata, Sabi. (itch and burn,
especially in women). Condylomata large, like cock's-comb, Euphras. Syphilis and sycosis, fig-
warts fan-shaped, much Aching, especially about joints, Cinnab. ("Cinnab. is preferable for warts
nose, a pressing pain in the hollow tooth or at the side of it" (Culex, vertigo every time he blows
expelled forcibly with much flatus, Alo. Coition prevented by extreme sensitiveness of vagina,
flesh beaten off bones, Phyt. (scraped off, Rhus). Severe cutting at close of urination, Sars.
> bending heard back and closing eyes; Thuja has < closing eyes). Fluids roll audibly into
Compare: Urtica; Croc; Trill; Millefol.
Tincture, to sixth potency.
Cracking of joints when extended.—Trembling of hands and feet.—Limbs go to
warmth and on moving; > from cold and after sweating.—Nails crippled; brittle or
soft.—Hangnails.
Open the workspace. Type a real case from this week — one you're still chewing on. Watch Repertify rank Thlaspi against the totality, cite the rubrics, and surface the §246-correct posology with the rule inline. You'll know by the third turn.
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