Kent's - Classical Homeopathy Online

HELLEBORUS NIGER [hell] [Kent’s]In all the complaints of Helleborus stupefaction occurs in greater or less degree. Sometimes it isa complete stupor, sometimes a partial stupor, but it is always stupefaction and sluggishness.Hellebore is useful in affections of the brain, spinal cord, the general nervous system and mind,but especially in acute inflammatory diseases of the brain and spinal cord and their membranes, and introubles bordering on insanity. There is a peculiar kind of imbecility or stupefaction of the our waterand mucus. A feeling of anxiety in the stomach. Cramping in the stomach after food a body and mind.The extreme state is unconsciousness. Complete unconsciousness in connection with cerebralcongestion, or inflammation which has gone on to hydrocephalus, cerebro-spinal meningitis, orinflammation of the brain, with stupefaction. Even early in the disease Hellebore lacks the wildness andacute delirium found in Stramonium and Belladonna. It is passive. Again, it fits in after the wildness ofthe delirium has passed away and the patient has settled down into a state of stupefaction. The patientlies upon the back, eyes partly open, rolling the head, mouth open, tongue dry, eyes lusterless, staringinto space. Staring at the individual talking. Waiting a long time to answer, or not answering at all.Violent attacks of brain trouble frequently come to a sudden end, but those that are morepassive linger, and that is where Hellebore comes in. The Hellebore case will linger for weeks andsometimes months in this state of stupefaction, gradually emaciating. He lies upon the back with thelimbs drawn up; he looks pale and sickly. When questioned he answers slowly. The text says:"Stupefaction bordering on insensibility". Another common expression is: "Diminished power of themind over the body". The muscles will not act; they will not obey the will. It is a sort of paralytic state,but "stupefaction" expresses it.Cannot project ideas; cannot rivet the attention; cannot concentrate the mind. The patientappears semi-idiotic.Delirium is not common, and when present it is muttering.There is more stupefaction, more "do nothing", more "say nothing", than delirium. Yet there isevidently confusion of mind; he cannot think. In many instances, very late in the disease, the patientcan be roused up, and he will act as if he were attempting to think, as if he were attempting to answer,attempting to move. But he simply stares at the doctor with eyes partly open, with a dazed expressionon his face, and picks his finger ends.When questioned the Hellebore patient is not able to tell you what he has in mind, unlessconsiderably aroused and agitated.But when so aroused he will talk about spirits, or say that he sees devils. He sees in hisimagination, those images that he has read about, or seen pictured, as the devil, with horns and a tail. Ayoung person who has never heard of the devil, or of spirits, would not have that form of hallucinationin his delirium. The hallucinations are shaped in accordance with what he has been taught to imagine.Hellebore has a peculiar quasi-hysterical condition---a form of insanity. She imagines she hassinned away her day of grace.Like Aurum, she believes that she is doing wrong, that she is committing an unpardonable sin.That is as near as the remedy approaches to insanity."An old woman having been accused of theft by the women around took it so much to heart thatshe hanged herself. This suicide produced such an effect on the women of the village that one afteranother accused herself of having caused the death of the old woman".The most striking type in Hellebore is the sick child. It comes in especially in children betweentwo and ten years of age.The staring---lying on the back and staring with half-closed eyes---is typical of the remedy.Sometimes the lips move without any sound. The lips move as if the child wishes to say something, buton further questioning the words he wished to speak are lost, forgotten.In hydrocephalus there is a sharp scream, the brain cry. The child will cry out in sleep. He willcarry the hand to the head and shriek, like Apis. But the Apis hydrocephalus is far more active andacute. The Apis patient kicks the covers off; this patient does not mind the covers, he does not mindanything. He is not easily disturbed. He lies upon his back with the limbs drawn up; often makingautomatic motions with the arms and legs.Sometimes one side is paralyzed, but the other keeps up automatic motions.Hellebore is useful in the low form of disease known as "apathetic typhoid". These samesymptoms guide to the remedy.Indifferent to all external impressions. Rarely much disturbed by being touched, or by beingcovered too warmly, or by not being covered at all. He does not seem to be sensitive to heat, or cold, orpricking, or handling or pinching. Listlessness. What is called in the text "stubborn silence" is more an