Colocynthis
Clarke - Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · John Henry Clarke · 15,020 chars · source ↗
General
Colocynthis.
Citrullus colocynthis. Cucumis colocynthis. Bitter Apple. N. O. Cucurbitaceae. Native of Turkey. Tincture of pulp of fruit.
Clinical
Cataract. Ciliary neuralgia. Colic. Coxalgia. Diabetes. Diarrhoea. Dysentery. Dysmenorrhoea. Glaucoma. Headache. Hoarseness. Menstrual colic. Neuralgia. Ovaries, affections of. Paraphimosis. Peritonitis. Rheumatism. Sciatica. Toothache. Tumours. Uterus, pains in. Vagina, pains in.
Characteristics
"The strongest characteristic calling for the use of this remedy is an agonising pain in the abdomen causing the patient to bend over double. Relief is obtained by motion, such as twisting, turning and wriggling around, and the motion is kept up steadily while the pain lasts; the pain is < by eating or drinking the least amount. This pain may occur alone, or in the dysentery, cholera, &c. The doubling over of the patient is the chief characteristic" (Guernsey).
The patient bends double or presses something hard against the abdomen. He leans over chairs, the table, or bedposts to get relief. According to Nash Mag. Phos. comes nearest to it in colic and neuralgic affections.
Cham. is also very close, both having colic from disturbing emotions, but the Cham. child does not double up, it tosses about. The Staph. patient is likely to have black or decayed teeth and sore eyelids, and there is chronic tendency to colic. Verat. has colic > bending double, but it has also cold sweat. Dioscorea has wind colic, but is > by stretching out.
The Stan. child wants to be carried with the abdomen on the mother's shoulder.
The nearest analogue to Colocynthis in its entire action on the human body is its botanical congener Bryonia, with which it should be compared. Both have the same general features—pain in muscles, nerves, and joints, gastro-enteric disturbance, and the same condition in regard to rheumatic joints, < by movement. Both have great irritability and ailments from mental emotion, though the latter feature is more marked in Colocynth. Arthritis and gouty headaches with ophthalmia, facial neuralgic pains extending to eye.
Coloc. has diarrhoea from grief, indignation or chagrin. Suppressed lochia from indignation. Diabetes with milky, gelatinous, or colloid urine. The characteristic griping of Coloc., forcing the patient to bend double, may be accompanied by cramps in other parts, which may occur with or without stool; if a stool occurs it gives immediate relief (Nux the opposite); any attempt to eat or drink <.
Cramps occur in the legs, uterus, and ovaries. A sensation as if clamped with iron bands is very characteristic in (coxalgia; dysmenia, &c.). Dragging in uterus and vagina. Griping, cutting, tearing, and spasmodic pains in the body; burning pains; pulsations through the body; sensation as of hard stones or potatoes in the body.
Easily intoxicated by stimulants. Affections of right side generally. The pains are often accompanied by stiffness and retarded motion of the affected parts; often affect the hip-joints; pains affecting joints are much < by motion; many neuralgic pains are > by rest. Abdominal pains are > by violent exertion.
> Lying with head bent forward. Rheumatic pain in the limbs is > by discharge of flatus. Touch <, and pressure > many of the pains. Warmth > most pains.
< Evening and night. Coloc. has, like Lyc., Helleb., and Caust., a 4 p.m. aggravation. One prover had: "At 4 p.m. the colic came on, six days in succession." This has been verified clinically. Coloc. is suited to blondes; persons of choleric temperament; and those liable to cramps and colic, from fruit, lead-poisoning, or excessive venery.
Relations
Coloc. is antidoted by: Camph., Caust., Cham., Coff., Op., Staph. Large doses are counteracted by tepid milk, infusion of galls, Camph., and Op. It antidotes: Caust., Magnes. Compatible: Staph., Cham.
Complementary: Merc. (dysentery) with much tenesmus). Compare: Bry. (nearest analogue), Elater., Cucurbita pepo.
Diosc. (griping, tearing, cutting, spasmodic pains in body, but > stretching body and motion); Dig. (paraphimosis);
Caust. (Joint rheumatism; follows Coloc. in colic); eyes feel hard, Can. ind.; Canth., Cham., Chel.; Chi.
(beer intoxicates easily); Coccul., Gamb., Lyc., Merc.; Nux; Plumb.
(inclination to assume strange attitudes in bed). Staph. (anger with vexation, abdominal pains, neuralgia—they follow one another well); Verat.;
Pul. (hoarseness 4 p.m.). From emotions, Cham., Bry., Gels., Pho. ac. Ign.; stiffness of knee-joints and all joints, Colch.; stiffness after acute rheumatism, hinders squatting, Graph.
Compare also Guaiac.; Crot. tig.
Causation
Anger. Indignation. Chagrin. Grief. Catching cold.
Mind
Mental dejection with taciturnity
Aversion to talk; disinclined to answer questions
Inclined to be angry and indignant
Lachrymose humour
Anxiety and inquietude, with an inclination to run away
Want of religious feeling
Disinclined to occupy oneself, even averse to visit his otherwise well-liked friends.
Head
Easy intoxication (from drinking beer)
Vertigo, which occasions falling, on turning the head quickly, with tottering of the knees
Headache, as from a draught of air, which is dissipated by walking in the open air
Compressive pain in the sinciput, aggravated by stooping, or lying on the back
Pressing pain in the forehead and root of the nose, as if a coryza would appear
Attacks of semi-lateral headache, drawing and cramp like, or pressive, with nausea and vomiting, sometimes daily, towards five o'clock in the afternoon
Pain in the forehead and in the eyes, as if proceeding from the outside inwards
Headache with violent pains, which do not permit a recumbent posture, and occasion cries or weeping
Attacks of headache, followed by suffocation
Congestion in the head
Burning pain in the skin of the forehead, and the scalp
Heat in the head
Profuse perspiration on the head, itching, smelling like urine (also on the hands, thighs, and feet); worse at night in bed; relieved after rising and walking in the warm room.
Eyes
Sensitive pressure in the eyes, esp. when stooping
Obscuration of the sight
Great white light at side of and below r. eye
Shimmering circle with rays before r. eye
Inflammation of the eyes
Burning and incisive pains, and shootings in the eyes (and forehead)
Eyes feel hard
Aching in upper and outer portions of r. eyeball in evening, < by rubbing it with finger; it feels harder than usual there; this aching lasted some days
Smarting in eyes; painfulness of eyeballs
Pressive feeling in orbits, towards root of nose
Painful pressure in eyeballs, esp. on stooping
Pains in eyes, sharp cutting in r. eyeball
Stitches as with knives in r. eyeball, extending to root of nose
Pain as from pressure on both eyelids from above downward
External strabismus of r. eye, with smarting lachrymation
Dryness; burning; smarting; lachrymation
Discharge of acrid serum from the eyes.
Ears
Warmth in r. ear
Obstruction before l. ear
Itching, sticking deep in ear, extending from Eustachian tube to tympanum;
> by boring in ear with finger
Crawling within ear > by boring
Difficult hearing; everything heard is accompanied by a roaring noise
Constant roaring and throbbing in both ears, esp. l.
Nose
Fluent coryza
Severe burning above the nose
Throbbing burrowing pain in nose extending from l. side to root.
Face
Pale and wasted face, with downcast (sunken) eyes
Tensive, tearing, burning or shooting pains (prosopalgia) in the face, often on l. side only, and extending to the ears and into the head
Cramp-like sensation in the l. malar bone, extending into l. eye
Scabs on the face
Face of a deep red colour (during the fever)
Face puffed, with heat and redness of l. cheek, and tearing pains.
Mouth
Pains in the teeth, as if the nerve were pulled or stretched
Pulsative pains in the teeth on l. side
Burning at the tip of the tongue
Sensation as if the tongue had been scalded by some hot fluid
Roughness of the tongue
Tongue loaded with a white or yellow coating
Cramps in the gullet, with empty eructations and palpitations of the heart.
Stomach
Diminished appetite, without thirst, though accompanied by a strong desire for drink, with a sickly taste in the mouth
Constant nausea with risings
Bitter taste in the mouth, and of all food and drink
Colic and diarrhoea, however little is eaten
Pains in the stomach sometimes after a meal
Vomiting of food, or of greenish matter
Vomiting, with diarrhoea
Painful sensitiveness of the epigastrium to the touch
Violent pressure on the stomach (with sensation of hunger), and in the precordial region.
Abdomen
Inflation of the abdomen, as from tympanitis
Feeling in the whole abdomen as if the intestines were being squeezed between stones
Cramp-like pain and constriction in the intestines, esp. after a fit of anger
Excessively violent colic, with incisive, cramp-like, or contractive pains, which compel the patient to bend double (< in any other position), with restlessness in the whole body, and with a sensation of shuddering in the face, which seems to proceed from the abdomen
Pain in the abdomen when walking (navel)
Colic, with cramps in the calves of the legs
Colic, as if from a chill
Colic after a meal
The colic and abdominal pains are relieved by bending double, by violent exercise, by coffee and tobacco-smoke; every other food or drink causes an aggravation
Pinching, and sensation of clawing in the abdomen, mitigated by violent exertion
Cuttings and shootings in the abdomen, as from knives, with shiverings and tearings along the legs
Great sensibility, soreness, and sensation of emptiness in the abdomen
Grumbling in the abdomen
Inguinal hernia.
Stool And Anus
Constipation
Constipation, and evacuations retarded (during pregnancy)
Loose evacuations of a greenish yellow, frothy and of a sour smell, putrid or mouldy
Slimy diarrhoea
Sanguineous evacuations
Dysenterical evacuations, with colic
During the evacuation, contraction in the rectum
Painful swelling of the haemorrhoidal tumours of the anus, and of the rectum
Discharge of blood from the rectum, with stinging, burning pain in the small of the back and anus (daily)
Haemorrhage from the anus
Paralysis of the sphincter ani.
Urinary Organs
Tenesmus of the bladder, with but small discharges
Diminished secretion of urine
Abundant discharge of urine of a bright colour, during the pains
Urine (like that in dropsy after scarlet fever) of a faint flesh colour, with a white-brown flocculent, transparent sediment, depositing on the chamber small, red, hard, solid crystals, which adhere firmly to the vessel
Fetid urine, which soon becomes thick, gelatinous, and glutinous
Itching at the orifice of the urethra, with desire to urinate
Burning in the urethra after micturition.
Male Sexual Organs
Sensation as if everything were flowing towards the genital parts, from both sides of the abdomen, occasioning a discharge of semen
Excitement of sexual desire, as in priapism
Complete impotence
Retraction of the prepuce behind the glans.
Female Sexual Organs
Cramp-like pain in l. ovary; in uterus; as if parts were squeezed in a vice
Ovarian cyst, paroxysm of acute pain in abdomen, sacrum, and hip, > by flexing thigh on pelvis
Metritis; metrorrhagia; suppressed catamenia, with cramping pains > by bending double; or caused by indignation or chagrin
Stitches in the ovaries
Lochia suppressed; puerperal fever after vexation
Painful nodosities in the mammae.
Respiratory Organs
Small dry cough, excited by irritation in the larynx, or by tobacco smoke
Constriction in the larynx, which induces frequent deglutition with oppressed breathing;
> in the open air
Fits of asthma at night.
Chest
Oppression of the chest, as if it were compressed.
Heart
Palpitation of the heart.—Stitches in cardiac region.
Neck And Back
Tension in the neck and shoulder-blades
Drawing pains in the back, as if the muscles were stretched
Great weakness in the back, esp. in the small of the back, with pressing headache (morning)
Congestion and suppuration of the axillary glands; subsultus of muscles.
Upper Limbs
Bruise-like pain in the joint of the shoulder, esp. after a fit of passion
Aching, pressive, and shooting pain in the arms
Cramp-like pain in the hands, which with difficulty suffers the fingers to be opened;
< when at rest
Pulling in the tendons of the thumbs.
Lower Limbs
Pain in the coxo-femoral joint, as if it were fastened with an iron clasp, the pelvis and sacral region, with pains extending from the lumbar region to the legs
Tensive lancination, in the lumbar region and of the hips, esp. when lying on the back
Pain (in the r. thigh) while walking, as if the psoas muscles were too short; on stooping it ceased, but began again when he commenced to walk.—(Spontaneous dislocation of the coxo-femoral joint.)
Want of flexibility in the knee, which prevents the bending of it
Cramps in the legs
Shootings in the legs, esp. during repose
Stitches in the knee-joints
Sensation of coldness in the knees (in the morning)
Great heaviness and trembling of the legs
The feet go to sleep (first the l., then the r. foot)
Swelling of the feet
Tearing in the soles of the feet during repose.
Generalities
Semi-lateral pains Painful cramps, and cramp-like contractions, in the internal or external parts Sensation as though stones were being ground together in the abdomen, working upon the soft parts Contraction of the tendons in some parts only, or throughout the body, with a drawing up of all the limbs
Twitching of the muscles Stiffness in all the joints Tearing shootings, traversing the whole body longitudinally Physical depression while walking in the open air
Fainting, with coldness of the external parts Swelling of various parts, with oppression of breathing Pulsations through the body Burning pains.
Skin
Troublesome itching, with great restlessness in the whole body, esp. in the evening in bed, followed by perspiration
Desquamation of the skin over the whole body
Carbuncles, with continuous burning pain
Small ulcers, with itching and burning
Eruptions which resemble scabies
Skin hot and dry.
Sleep
Disturbed sleep at night (by dreams)
Sleepiness, alternately with delirium, with the eyes open
Sleeplessness following a fit of indigestion
Very wakeful and sleepless
Lying on the back when asleep, with one hand under the occiput
Frequent vivid and lascivious dreams.
Fever
Cold and shivering, with heat in the face, without thirst
Coldness of the hands and soles of the feet, while the rest of the body is warm
Pulse hard, full and quick
Strong pulsation in the arteries
External dry heat
Internal heat, with attacks of flushes of heat
Nocturnal sweat, of the smell of urine, on the head, hands, legs, and feet, causing itching of the skin
Perspiration principally on the head and on the extremities.