Helleborus Niger

Helleborus Niger.

Black Hellebore. Christmas Rose. N. O. Ranunculaceae. Tincture of dry powdered root. Juice of fresh root mixed with equal parts of alcohol.

Albuminuria. Amenorrhoea. Aphthae. Apoplexy. Cholera. Concussion. Convulsions. Cystitis. Depression of spirits. Diarrhoea. Dropsy. Epilepsy. Headache. Hernia. Home-sickness. Hydrocele. Hydrocephalus. Kidneys, congestion of. Melancholia. Meningitis. Night-blindness. Puerperal convulsions. Scarlatina. Tetanus. Typhoid fever. Ulcers. Wounds.

Black Hellebore was one of the drugs used to produce the "Helleborism of the ancients," the subject of Hahnemann's famous essay; but the drug most commonly employed was the While Hellebore, or Veratrum album, which belongs to another family, the Melanthaceae. "Black" hellebore receives its name from the external colour of its root; the root of Ver. alb. is extremely white. Teste quotes Hahnemann as saying: "I conclude from various observations that one of the first effects of Black Hellebore is a kind of stupor, a dulness of the sensorium commune, a condition where, with sight unimpaired, nothing is seen very fully, and the patient does not pay any attention to anything; with the hearing perfectly sound, nothing is heard distinctly; with perfectly constituted gustatory organs, everything seems to have lost its taste; where the mind is often or always without ideas; where the past is forgotten or little remembered; where nothing gives one any pleasure; where one's sleep is very light, and a really sound, refreshing sleep is not to be had; and where one desires to work without having the necessary strength or attention required for it." Teste groups Hell. n. in the Chamomilla class, with Gratiola and Viola tric., all of which cause "a particular derangement of the cerebral functions and even of the whole nervous system; a painful increase of the sentient action, followed by a considerable depression of the vital forces, and a certain disorder of the mental faculties." He cured with Hell. n. a case of epilepsy in a little girl five weeks old after the failure of Cham.

Cham. was given to the nurse, Hell. n. directly to the patient. The history was this: The child, which was well formed, was constipated from the day of birth. The mother, twenty-eight, dark, robust, but of irritable temperament, laid the child's sickness to a fear she had had towards the end of her pregnancy. This may have been the case, but the lady had lost a boy in convulsions, precisely similar, the previous year.

The little girl had every day five or six paroxysms, each lasting from one to three minutes, and almost always followed by sleep. There was sudden inability of the body, without any marked stiffness; head slightly thrown back; repeated oscillations of tongue from right to left, the tongue being slightly protruded from the mouth. Staring look, convulsive rolling upward of eyes when the paroxysms were very violent; a few acute cries followed by drowsiness, when the spasm was near its end.

During the paroxysm the child remained so perfectly sensible that a slight shock, as the shutting of a door, arrested the paroxysms at once, and then shortened them a good deal. Hell. n. cured in two or three days. From a purely nervous derangement of this kind, the action of Hell. n. goes on to actual inflammatory states of the brain and its meninges. The drowsiness so prominent in Teste's case is a leading note of the conditions of meningitis and fever to which the drug is homeopathic.

Such a condition is found when effusion has taken place from the inflamed membranes, and here the ancient reputation of Hell. n. in dropsical conditions is confirmed. The forehead is wrinkled; there are automatic movements of one arm and leg, whilst the other is paralysed; the head rolls from side to side with screams; greedy drinking of water; chewing motion of jaws; urine scanty or entirely suppressed, sometimes with sediment like coffee grounds. This condition of urine is an indication for Hell. n. in many states, and a sign of the favourable action of the remedy is, as Nash points out, an increase in the amount of flow.

In post-scarlatinal dropsy with these indications it is of great service. It has cured concussion of the brain resulting from a blow on the head after Arn. had failed. In this case one pupil was larger than the other; the patient was drowsy, answered questions slowly; one leg dragged on walking. In fever there is sooty appearance of nostrils; dry, yellow tongue with red edges; breath horribly offensive; drinks roll audibly into stomach; fever < 4 to 8 p.m.; face pale, almost cold; pulse faint, imperceptible; picks clothes and lips.

Guernsey sums up the remedy thus: "In dropsical affections; dropsy of outer parts and of inner parts; parts which are usually white turn red; absence of thirst in all complaints; chilliness, heat, perspiration without thirst. Discharge of urine too scanty; urine with dark sediment like coffee grounds—top part is clear, but leaving this sediment. Nausea at the stomach; rumbling and rolling in the bowels; darting in the joints, also in the bones; heat with shuddering." In addition to the "absence of thirst" there is "drinks with avidity, bites spoon, but remains unconscious," and "Thirst with disgust for drink," as there is also "Hunger: child nurses greedily with disgust for food." Hunger, yet food is repulsive though it tastes natural.

The hungry, nauseated, uneasy sensation at the epigastrium showing its profound action on the solar ganglion. Cooper, who has studied the Hellebores very closely, says that they produce the "sinking sensation" more intensely than any other drugs. The Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), a close ally of Hell. n., "acts on the solar plexus and works upwards, causing dyspnoea." He quotes (H. W., xxx. 210) from Flora Historica an interesting account of how French prisoners of war at Norman-cross were suffering from an epidemic of night-blindness (nyctalopia), when for lack of snuff they took to using powdered Black Hellebore, with the result that they were cured of their blindness in a few days.

Among the dropsies cured may be mentioned hydrocele from suppressed eruptions. The old use of Helleb. as an application to ulcers seems to have depended on its property of draining the tissues. In the pathogenesis of Hell. foet. is a symptom bearing on this profuse discharge from ulcerated surface." Cooper has cured ulcers with dropsical conditions with Hell. n. and Hell. v. given internally. The headaches of Hell. n. are stupefying; sensation as though contents of head were bulging at forehead and eyes; shocks pass through the brain like electricity; boring and shaking in forehead and occiput; bruised pain; heat in brain.

Pains in occiput and nape of neck I have frequently cured with Hell. n.; also headache which the patient can only describe as a "stupid headache." There is vomiting and purging as with the other Hellebores, the vomit is apt to be green and the stools jelly-like. The pulse is slow and feeble, the respiration is slow and the temperature low. Torpidity and apathy run through the remedy. In this it approaches Opium.

Apoplexy followed by idiocy. The symptoms are < 4 to 8 p.m., and in the evening and night (sees spirits; rolls head; dry cough; night-blindness); < in cool air; from uncovering; > in warm air; by wrapping up.

< From exertion from motion; from stooping; breathing easier when lying down lying perfectly quiet > pains in head. Touch <. < When thinking of ailment; > when mind is diverted.

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 diarrhoea accompanying dropsy); Pip. meth., Ox. ac. (> when mind diverted); Nat. m.

(< from consolation).

Checked exanthemata. Blows. Disappointed love.

Shootings in the ears, day and night, with searching piercing.

Toothache at night, with shooting and tearing pains, < by cold and heat.

Suppression of sexual desire, with flaccidity of the genital parts.

Constriction of the throat, nose, and chest.—Heat in the chest.

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

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 All things have a freshness about them

Convulsions Cramps Syncope Dropsical swellings

Falling off of the hair and nails.