Kent's - Classical Homeopathy Online

A great deal of the rest of Bryonia, as we go over it, is repetition. If you will only read the textcarefully and make application of what has been said, you see the general character and idea of theremedy, you see its image and you will fill it out for yourselves, if you have a full text-book.BUFO RANA [bufo] [Kent’s]The little glands along the back of the toad's neck, when squeezed with forceps, ooze a secretionwhich is soluble in alcohol and has been proved, this is the subject we will now consider. Bufosatyhienis is the one I use in practice. Bufo is a wonderful medicine, it profoundly affects the mind andespecially the intellectual faculties, including confusion of mind and loss of memory until the patientgradually goes towards a state of imbecility. The greatest use of this medicine will be found in nervousconditions, throbbings, jerking and spasmodic condition of muscles, ulceration of the skin and mucousmembranes, and all this in such patients as are tending toward a state of imbecility, a state of confusionor weakness of mind. The imbecility is more frequent in Bufo than the active states of insanity ormania, yet these appear occasionally through the remedy.The first symptom in the text reads, "Desire for solitude in order to practice masturbation". Thisalone throws a flood of light upon the nature of the remedy; the lack of government, the lack of controlover the sexual longing, and the low-mindedness whereby he is willing to abandon himself to the lowerthings that are in the human race, to perverted practices and vices. It tells a great story. "Whimpered,then cried, until he fell into a state of coma". These states, as brought out clinically, are manifested inadult people who act as if they were children. An aspect of child-like simplicity is present and the mindreturns to a state of child-like innocence. An adult takes on the ways of a child, as a state of imbecility.This mental state is especially found under Baryta carb. in adults who have never developed beyondchildhood, who have always remained children. A persons reasons like a child, talks like a child,whimpers like a child, cries like a child, wants to be petted like a child; so it is in Baryta carb. We findthis state of mind in children who have developed epilepsy; the child has not developed properly, andthe epilepsy is only one of the manifestations. The cause is far back, and is really the psoric condition.Thereby the mental state has not developed, the child has not grown into a man or woman inintellectual attainments or wisdom, and remains as a whimpering, screaming child. This lack ofdevelopment is found in Bufo and in Baryta carb.; they are related to each other in that the child- likestate remains while the body grows. We see in these medicines the fear and simplicity that belongs tothe child; always sickly, deficient, never reaching adult fullness or growth, always a child. "How muchlike a child that woman appears", or "How much like a child that man is". We say that of some oldpeople, they are so childish. The old routinists have said of those people who are prematurely old orhave taken on senility, that they need Baryta carb. This medicine also stands out in bold type for thoseprematurely senile; the man at fifty acts like an old broken-down man of eighty; he has lost all he hadfive or six years ago, and has taken on a child-like simplicity and innocence, an appearance ofimbecility. Then it is that we think of this medicine. Baryta carb. has hitherto been the leading one, butBufo is also very important. "Left his bed after apathy and ran like mad through the house". There itbranches off from the condition of imbecility to that of excitement of mind. Most of the Bufo patientswill be passive, placid, not in a state of excitement or mania, but passive in everything. Feeble-minded,simple, child-like. "Weak memory and idiotic". "Longs for solitude, yet dreads being alone". "Angry,bites at surrounding objects". "Easily laughs or cries". It has been used in delirium tremens, during thestages of excitement and mental prostration, biting and grasping things. "Titters"; now that is moreexpressive than to say she laughs, she titters at every little thing that is said. Titters and says foolishthings; titters over things that are not laughable; everything said seems to be funny to this simple, childlikewoman. You know a child laughs and is merry, but we do not expect such things in adults exceptwhen what is said is particularly ludicrous. These symptoms are sometimes met in epileptics. "Easilylaughs or cries"; easily affected, an extremely sensitive, nervous nature.Again, the most extreme anxiety, night and day, wringing the hands and talking aboutsomething awful that is going to happen when there is nothing to happen; some awful event, someterrible thing in the future, it is all darkness and despair, walks the floor and wrings the hands and saysover and over the same awful things that are going to take place, when in reality the future is safe andthere is nothing to be anxious about. This occurs in cases of insanity. Such as are approachingimbecility are passive, they have a lack of comprehension of things around; but those that are goinginto insanity have an increased imagination of the things that surround them. Where these symptomshave been induced by secret vice."Become angry if misunderstood". This is approaching insanity.It is well known to medical men and to the courts that these conditions of insanity interminglein the human race with epilepsy, and that an epileptic is not always held responsible for murder,