Kent's - Classical Homeopathy Online

feature of Colchicum. Ulcers of the lids, styes, much lachrymation in the open air. The tears excoriateand cause redness of the lids.He takes cold easily. Sneezing, stuffing up of the nostrils.Nosebleed in rheumatic and gouty constitutions. But there is one feature that is more marked inColchicum than all others. He is so sensitive to odors that he smells things which others do not smell.He smells odors from which he is nauseated. "Strong odors make him quite beside himself". You say"soup" or "broth", or something to eat, and he gets sick. He can smell the things in the kitchen, in spiteof much precaution, and this runs through the remedy. In typhoid fever, prostrated beyond the usual--and typhoid is always prostrated enough--he is unusually prostrated.He cannot take milk, cannot take raw eggs, cannot take soup, because he gags at the merethought of them. He has gone on for days, and his family are afraid that he is going to starve to death.That aggravation from odors is so strong with him that it seems to take possession of him. It involveshis appetite, his weakness, his stomach. So it does seem that it is a strong feature. Notice that this is oneof his loves; it is a perverted love, and the loves are general whether they are manifested through theeyes, nose or touch. It enters into his very life because it involves hatred to odor, and when it stands outin low forms of disease like the continued fevers, the exhaustive fevers and rheumatic complaints itbecomes a general. It would be a particular if it were something that applied to the things alone, butyou see it enters into the very innermost. Involves a hatred, becomes mental, becomes a part of theman. He himself may be said to hate odors, hate the smell of food and the thought of it. Do not say"food" in the presence of a Colchicum patient, but give him Colchicum first, and pretty soon he willwant something to eat. It removes that hatred for food. What a vital thing it must be when a man hatesthat which will keep him alive.The teeth are very sensitive. "Rheumatic teeth". The gums settle away; after a while the teethbecome loose. Pain in the teeth; rheumatic condition of the jaws and the teeth. "Grinding of the teeth,teeth sensitive when pressed together"."Aversion to food; loathing the sight and smell", more the smell of it. "The smell of fish, eggs,.fat meats or broths causes nausea even unto faintness". The Colchicum patient may have much thirst orno thirst, or these may alternate. Nausea and vomiting are very strong features. "Nausea and inclinationto vomit, caused by swallowing saliva. Nausea, eructations and copious vomiting of mucus and bile.Violent retching followed by copious and forcible vomiting of food, and then of bile".In the stomach there is sometimes coldness and sometimes burning. Now it may be that theColchicum patient has both coldness and burning. They are both recorded in the Repertory and in theprovings, but it is Sometimes difficult to tell which is which, more difficult than you will imagineunless you try a piece of ice somewhere and something very hot."Burning in the pit of the stomach". Coldness in the stomach.Now the abdomen furnishes us still more to observe. The abdomen is distended with flatus,tympanitic. Great soreness in the whole abdomen. Just such a tympanitic condition as we have intyphoid.If you ever happen to be in the country practicing medicine, and the farmer's cows get into afresh clover patch and eat themselves full and become distended so that you are afraid they are going toexplode offer your services and give each one of those cows a few pellets of Colchicum. It will be but afew minutes before the wind will get out of there to your surprise and the farmer's, too; and you mayconvert him to Homeopathy.Farmers have been known to put a butcher's knife into the pouch of the cow between the lastshort ribs to let the wind out. The cow will get well, but Colchicum is better than the butcher's knife.The same is true of the horse; in fact, of man or beast.When the abdomen is violently distended and tympanitic, Colchicum is often a suitable remedy.Spasmodic pains, colic, tearing pains, burning, griping pains, forcing the patient to bend double.Aggravated from motion. Great tenderness and soreness with the colic. Aggravated from eating;ameliorated from bending double. And then comes the diarrhea. It has just such a diarrhea as is foundin low forms of fever.Dysenteric or diarrhoeic stools that are jelly like. They form in the pan a solid mass of jelly-like,coagulated mucus. Very painful, extremely painful is the Colchicum stool. Great soreness in theabdomen. Great relaxation of the parts. Prostration of the rectum. Putrid, dark, bloody mucus. "Bloodydischarges from the bowels with deathly nausea". Fell dysentery, with discharges of white mucus andviolent tenesmus. Putrid, dark, clotted blood and mucus pass from the bowels. Diarrhea with violent,colicky pains.