Piper Nigrum
Clarke - Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica · John Henry Clarke · 6,810 chars · source ↗
General
Piper Nigrum.
Pepper. N. O. Piperaceae. Trituration or tincture of dried fruits (peppercorns).
Clinical
Anus, fissure of. Blenorrhagia. Breasts, swelling of; eruption on. Constipation. Cough. Dysuria. Haemorrhoids. Headache. Menses, irregular; scanty. Milk, excessive flow of. Neuralgia. Priapism. Speech, difficult. Teeth, caries of. Tongue, eruption on; heavy. Toothache. Uterus, cramps in.
Characteristics
The Peppers are tropical climbing shrubs. Piper nig. yields the pepper of commerce. The fruit when ripe is red. It is gathered before it is fully ripe and spread on mats in the sun, when it loses its red colour and becomes black and shrivelled.
This is Black pepper. White pepper is the same fruit freed from its outer skin by maceration in water and subsequent rubbing (Treas. of Bot.). The symptoms of the proving are Houat's. The only additional symptom is one recorded by Berridge as having occurred in a lady on two occasions from taking a large quantity of pepper: "Feeling as if temples and malar bones were pressed in, < on left side." This confirms one of Houat's symptoms.
The full, heavy headache of Houat's provings I can confirm by personal experience: I get the headache whenever I take food highly peppered; and I know others who do the same. Sensations of burning occur almost everywhere. Pressure is almost as common: Pressure in nasal bones, in temples and facial bones. Contraction of uterus and sensation as if something about to enter it.
Sensation of a foreign round body rising to stomach. The symptoms are < by change of temperature; in damp weather; in evening; by motion.
Relations
Compare: Piper m., Cubeba (botanical; also mental, genito-urinary, skin, and general symptoms).
Mind
Hot-headed, irascible, and often gay
Amorousness with hypochondriasis
Fear of being poisoned.
Head
Heaviness and congestion of the cerebellum, with pale face
Rushing and congestion of blood to head with throbbing
Brain: empty feeling; numbness causing swooning; fluctuation and oscillation in morning
Pressure on head; as if bones of cranium and face rested on lower jaw
Neuralgic pain through whole head at every change of temperature
Violent headache; feels as if it would burst at vertex
Pressing pains at temples as if they would be broken in.
Eyes
Eyes inflamed and burning, with sensation of cold in lids
Lids ulcerated and bleared
Lachrymation and photophobia
Dim sight and vertigo, with headache, nausea, and vomiting.
Ears
Crusty ulcers in concha of ears.
Nose
Frequent sneezing, epistaxis
Dry and fluent coryza
Dryness and burning in nostrils; nostrils stopped up
Pressure on nasal bones as if being crushed.
Face
Feeling as if temples and malar bones were pressed in, < l. side
Red, burning face
Drawing faceache; as if muscles and bones were ranging themselves on one another
Convulsive closure of jaws
Eczema on lips.
Mouth
Tooth decays
Violent toothache, < in warmth and evening
Eruption of little vesicles on margin of tongue
Painful, heavy tongue; impeded speech
Whitish coating on middle of tongue
Burning dryness of mouth and throat
Heat and dryness of palate and tongue, as if burned.
Throat
Constant accumulation of mucus in throat and expectoration
Burning in throat with sensation of stiffness as if it were an iron tube
Burning pains in tonsils, with sensation as if they were being pierced
Paralysis of muscles of throat; can cry but not articulate intelligibly.
Stomach
Constant, unquenchable thirst
Vomiting with great exertion; it seemed as if stomach itself would be vomited
Sensation of heat and dryness in stomach
Cramps and drawing in stomach, with desire for coarse and extravagant food
Gastric discomfort.
Abdomen
Burning and lancinating pains in liver, as if a tumour there
Disposition of abdomen to obesity
Abdomen swollen, hard, burning
Tympanites with sensation as if everything in it were in ebullition
Borborygmi
Inflammation of intestines with great thirst
Heaviness, flatulence
Colic and cramps; sensation as if intestines would burst
Painful restlessness and anxiety in intestines
Sensation of round foreign body rising to stomach, with heavy pain in intestines
Electrical-like discharges in intestines when he moves.
Stool And Anus
Inflammation of rectum, anus swollen and burning; fear to go to stool on account of the difficulty and pain
Fissures at anus
Large flowing haemorrhoids
Long-lasting constipation, then involuntary, thin stools.
Urinary Organs
Full, swollen bladder, frequent inclination to urinate without success
Burning pains in bladder as from live coals
Burning in glans and urethra
Blennorrhoea, greenish, offensive
Difficult micturition
Urine: turbid, brownish; diabetic; bloody; containing sand.
Male Sexual Organs
Excessive priapism
Inflammation and swelling of penis, with priapism and burning pains
Burning, pricking, excoriating pains in glans
Strong ejaculation, or almost none, and very difficult.
Female Sexual Organs
Ovaries and uterus congested, with pricking and lancinating pains
Contraction of uterus with sensation as if something strove to penetrate into it
Burning and distending pains in uterus
Menses: difficult, retarded; capricious, irregular, with colic and black blood.
Respiratory Organs
Ulceration and false membranes thick, deep in larynx
Voice: low, deep, rough, unintelligible
Hoarseness with coughing and constant snuffing
Severe coughing, esp. evening and when going to sleep
Cough: violent, occasionally spitting of blood; croupy; hollow
Dyspnoea and attacks of suffocation.
Chest
Disposition to obesity of chest
Painful spots an chest, < coughing, breathing, motion
At each coughing spell it seemed as if chest would be torn and he would spit blood
Burning, lancinating pains; sensation of heat and dryness of chest
Burning and swollen heat
Great flow of milk
Dartrous eruption on l. breast.
Heart
Sensation as if heart were surrounded with water.—Frequent palpitation.
Back
Burning in loins and kidneys, with contractive movements.
Limbs
Inflammation and swelling of joints.
Generalities
Bones brittle.—Motion of carriage deafens and = spasms.—Spasms with tetanic stiffness of limbs.—< From motion; in evening; in damp weather.
Skin
Crusty ulcers in ears
Large pustules on face, leaving scars
Eczema on lips
Very tender skin
Itching, < by scratching, heat, and motion.
Sleep
Irresistible drowsiness
Lethargic sleep
Wakens at night without being able to sleep again
Nightmare.
Fever
Dryness and coldness of skin, heat with biting dryness
Heat in forehead with heaviness of head and vertigo
Cold sweat with great heat through whole body
Sweat which seems to corrode the skin.