AETHUSA CYNAPIUM - HOMEOPATIA

This remedy is one of the most important in the Materia Medica, and is not so well known as it should be; it is largely characterized by intolerance of milk. (See Stomach.)
The mental symptoms peculiar to children, and frequently to adults, are great anguish and crying; restlessness, followed by pains in head and abdomen. As the disease progresses, the patient becomes more and more retired in his disposition, and more inclined to weep.
In the delirium of adults, it is fancied that cats and dogs are seen. There is a disposition to jump out of bed: if they are out of bed, will try to jump out of the window: or if they are in bed, will jump out and start for the window.
Patient will lie stretched out in an unconscious state; we often see children in this condition.
HEAD –
Feels bound up or as if in a vise. Distressing pain in occiput, down nape of neck and spine. Stupefaction; unable to remain in an upright position; vertigo when seated, which is increased by motion; vertigo with sleepiness. The head symptoms are relieved by expelling flatus.
EYES –
Scrofulous ophthalmia; swelling of the meibomian glands; chronic inflammation of the edges of the lids--during the night the eyelids become so closely adhered to each other, that they must be washed open in the morning; pustules on the cornea; pupils dilated, but sensitive to light; objects seem much larger than they really are; chronic photophobia; staring, dilated pupils.
EARS –
Yellowish discharge from the right ear; troublesome hissing in the ears. In the troubles of the ears, hissing, etc., there is great alleviation by inserting the finger, and drawing the parts asunder.
NOSE –
Herpetic eruption on the end of the nose. Often stopped up with a very thick mucus; frequent ineffectual desire to sneeze.
FACE –
The symptoms are very important, and are more particularly applicable to children. On first glancing at a child, we see an expression of great anxiety and pain, with linea nasalis, which is a surface of pearly whiteness on the upper lip, bounded by a distinct line from the outer nasal orifices to the angles of the mouth. This symptom is more characteristic of Æthusa than of any other medicine. The face is puffed, and speckled with red spots.
MOUTH –
The buccal cavity is usually very dry.
Aphthæ over the mouth; salivation; persons describe a sensation as if the tongue were too long, and pressing against the teeth; it seems long, they cannot use it well. Taste bitter.
THROAT –
Pustules in the throat; making the patient almost desperate; burning in throat; great difficulty in swallowing.
STOMACH –
Regurgitation of food an hour or so after it has been taken. Violent vomiting of a frothy matter, white as milk, This we may find in men, children, or pregnant women. We may put down the following as a positive symptom occurring under this remedy: Very often in the summer a sick child cannot retain milk, either its mother's, or that of the cow. The child may take a good supply of it, but immediately it will all be vomited, and the little sufferer will fall over exhausted. It may take more milk shortly, when there will be the same result. The fault is not in the milk, but with the child, which this remedy will speedily correct.
A diarrhœa of curdled milk often accompanies the vomiting of milk, or an obstinate constipation with much worrying, fretting, etc. We sometimes find these symptoms of diarrhœa and vomiting in cholera infantum and summer complaints.
Copious vomiting in adults, with a great feeling of distress; can't tell what the distress is about, but still it exists. Vomiting and diarrhœa of greenish mucus, and of bloody mucus; vomiting with perspiration and great weakness, accompanied by anguish and distress. Cold perspiration; very violent pains in the stomach. Adults complain of a peculiar sensation, as though the stomach were turned upside down, accompanied by a burning feeling up to the chest.
Tearing pains in the stomach, extending into the œsophagus; colicky pains, with diarrhœa, also with constipation; bubbling sensation in the umbilical region, similar to the bubbling of boiling water, or water bubbling up in a spring.
ABDOMEN –
Very cold sensation in whole of upper abdomen; internal and external coldness of abdomen, with aching pain in bowels and coldness of lower extremities. Colic followed by vomiting, vertigo, and weakness. Excessive griping pains in; tense, inflated and sensitive, especially in region of the liver.
STOOL –
Undigested or partly so; green, thin, bilious, with violent tenesmus before and after stool; bright yellow, or greenish watery, slimy stools, with crying and drawing up of the feet in infants. Constipation, most obstinate, with feeling as if all action of bowels had been lost. Cholera infantum; after much purging and vomiting the child becomes cold, clammy, stupid, loses consciousness and will often lie with staring eyes and dilated pupils.
URINE –
Cutting pains in the bladder with frequent calls to urinate; urine is often red, sometimes white sediment.
SEXUAL –
Female: Lancinating pains in sexual organs; pimples on external parts, itching exceedingly when she gets warm; catamenia are very watery. Swelling of the mammary glands with heat and redness, with lancinating pains, which are the characteristic pains for this remedy.
CHEST –
Sufferings of the patient render him almost speechless; the disease has a tendency to entirely deprive him of speech. Respiration often becomes hoarse and hissing; very difficult, painful, and anxious respiration. Cough, with stunning pain in the head; the cough producing the pain. Sensation as if the chest were encircled by a band, which appears to cause an oppressed and difficult breathing. Swelling of the lymphatic glands around the neck, like a string of beads. Swelling of the axillary glands, particularly if accompanied by the lancinating thrusts. Violent palpitation of the heart.
JOINTS –
Eruption around the joints, particularly the knee, elbow, ankle. All eruptions of Æthusa itch intolerably when exposed to the heat, or when they become warm. Tettery eruptions, which bleed easily; black and blue spots, sometimes like ecchymosis, all over the body, showing a very low state of the system. This remedy also cures anasarca.
SLEEP –
Child can't sleep on account of frequent startings; it gets almost asleep when it awakens with a sudden start; the patient falls asleep for a short time, then awakens and keeps awake for a long time. Restlessness with excessive anguish.
FEVER –
Complete absence of thirst, though there is great heat, characteristic of Æthusa. Cannot bear to be uncovered during the sweat. Profuse cold perspiration.
Pulse rapid, hard, and small; sometimes irregular; often in a very low state of the system the pulse is imperceptible. Black tongue and bilious diarrhœa in typhus fevers.
GENERALITIES –
Agitation and very painful distress; great general weakness, often coming suddenly, particularly in children; also considerable emaciation. Want of power to hold the head up; also to stand up. W e find this condition in children, where there is no particular sickness, but the child can't stand up; can't bear its weight on its limbs.
Epileptic form of convulsion when the thumbs are bent inward, face red, eyes turned down (which is peculiar, as in epilepsy they are usually turned up), pupils dilated and immovable, white, milky froth before the mouth, teeth set, pulse usually small, temperature of the skin natural. The convulsions are very violent; violence seeming to be characteristic.
This remedy is most frequently indicated in the summer. It often comes in very nicely where the child is much run down, and nothing seems to do any good--Arsen., Calc. carb., Silic.,--everything seems to fail; and then comes in Æthusa.
Unusual liability to excoriation of the thighs in walking. Great disposition to perspire on the slightest physical effort.
Æthusa is a great liver and stomach remedy, other symptoms agreeing. Trismus in a very violent form.
SKIN –
Whole body may be of bluish-black color, or black and blue spots may appear.
WORSE –
From 3 to 4 A.M.; also towards evening.

KEY-NOTES TO THE MATERIA MEDICA - GUERNSEY

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