Kent's - Classical Homeopathy Online

The joints sometimes swell. "Enlargement of the joints". But the swelling is not so common asthe pains without swelling.Soreness, lameness in the joints, with these radiating pains.There will be burning, stitching, tearing, and the pains will radiate and appear in one part of thebody then in another. "A pain in the heel as if it were ulcerating", and then the pain shoots off in everydirection. Numbness. Lameness.As to the heart, the pulse becomes slow. Very often it is slowed down astonishingly.The mental symptoms are very defective, that is, we do not know the mental symptoms. Thereare a few. We know this, that the mind is weak, that he is unable to sustain a mental effort, and that heis forgetful. "Defective recollection and weak memory.Terrifying apparitions in twilight". It is not a strange thing for a child in the dark to imagine allsorts of things, because they have heard graveyard stories from old people; but with this remedybetween the daylight and darkness he sees ghosts, imaginary forms coming round him. It hasmelancholy, apathy, prostration of mind. Some dizziness. The headaches are of the same character asthe general pains in uraemic subjects, where there is plenty of sand in the urine, red pepper deposit. Thehead comes in for its share of these wandering pains. Stitching, tearing, twinging in the scalp; in theskull; in the eyes, ears, back of the head. Burning pains. "A feeling in the head as if it was becominglarger", is a peculiar symptom; a puffy sensation.Always putting the hand to the head; it feels as if he had on a skull-cap. It fits down over thebrow, and it is not an uncommon thing with such patients to put the hand to the head to take off the cap."Feels as if he had a cap on the head", when there is none there. This symptom is not always describedlike a cap on the head. It is convertible into numbness of the scalp; many patients describe a sensationof numbness in the scalp, as if they had on a cap. Sometimes patients will deny that it is a sensation ofnumbness, and say it is just a cap. At one time I fully believed the "cap" belonged to two sensations. Ifit was painful I placed it under "pressure". If it was not painful it was supposed to belong to"numbness"; but I have now made a new rubric, "the sensation of skull cap", which I now think isentirely distinctive from numbness; but they both have to be compared.Then the eyes take on that same gouty condition, with stitching tearing pains, twinging pains,shooting pains. Shooting off in various directions. There is one grand feature about Berberis, that it hasno particular direction; it has all directions. Most remedies have pains taking a direction from one partto the other, pains going from the eye to the temple, etc., but in Berberis it cannot be said the pains goto any place in particular. They are wandering pains and they radiate. Pains in the ears of the samecharacter. In every part of the body we have these twinging, tearing, burning, shooting pains comingand going, causing the patient to scowl and make a sharp noise.The patient has a sickly look; face pale, earthly complexion, with sunken cheeks and hollow,blue-encircled eyes. That is a description of a sick face. Berberis has been very useful in phthisicalconditions; and in the pains, and twinging, and sufferings in persons who have been operated on forfistula in ano. When the fistula has been closed, these pains will come if it is a Berberis case. Thekidney manifestations will come on, or the liver manifestations, or the enfeebled heart, or thesewandering pains. At one time feverish, full of pains, with violent thirst; alternating with the veryopposite state.Prostration and aversion to water. Want of appetite at one time; canine hunger at another. Thestomach is disordered, digestion is slow and feeble, and we have manifestations usually known topatients as "bilious". Eructations that are bitter and of bile.The liver is full of suffering. In the liver we have these pains, and added to them suddenstabbing like a knife puncturing the liver. Shooting, tearing, burning, stitching, twinging pains,wandering from one place to another. "Gall-stone colic". These pains with jaundice. The liver seems toslow down in its actions, and the patient becomes jaundiced. The stool becomes white, bileless. "Sharp,pinching pains in the liver, which come suddenly and with great severity. Violent stabbing pain in theregion of the liver, taking his breath away. Had to bend double".These pains last a moment and pass away. In gall-stone colic pains are spasmodic, increase inintensity and diminish, but do not let up entirely. Berberis when it is indicated will let the little gallstoneloose, and it will pass through, and the patient will take a long breath and wish he had sent for thedoctor sooner. Anything that is spasmodic can be relieved instantly.Pains through the abdomen. Copious, thick, mushy stools, and these are yellow, like yellowcorn meal mush. "Diarrhea; mush- like yellowish discharges". "Clay-colored". From what we haveseen it is not surprising that it is clay-colored, that it is bileless, that it is white. The action on the liverdoes that.