Kent's - Classical Homeopathy Online

apathetic silence, an inability to speak. It appears as if he refused to answer, but he does not; he doesnot know how to answer; he cannot think.Fixed ideas in persons who are said to be just a little "off their balance", a little queer. And thatfixed idea will stay; there is no use trying to argue him out of it. The woman gets a fixed idea that she isgoing to die on a certain day--and nothing can get it out of her head. This is not like Aconite, becausethere is no fear of death. Aconite has fear of death and fixes the time of death. Fixed idea that she hascommitted some sin, which she will at times name and describe, or perhaps only mention vaguely---but, it is very real to her.When able to be about the patient appears to be sad, because she sits and says nothing, andseems to be in a woeful mood. But there is not that great lamentation, with walking the floor andwringing the hands, that we find in Aurum. It is an apathetic state; she appears sad and melancholy,whereas perhaps she does little thinking. Any attempt at consolation, so long as the patient is able tothink, only aggravates the trouble. Like Natrum muriaticum, the complaints are aggravated byconsolation, but the complaints of Natrum muriaticum are not at all like these. If the Hellebore patientis able to meditate upon his symptoms, they seem to grow better.Sometimes there are convulsive motions in this remedy, but they are more likely to beautomatic. Motions that seem to have nothing to do with the will. He simply makes motions, like onemoving in an absent minded state.The Helleborus patient is benumbed everywhere. The whole sensorium is in a benumbed state, astupefaction, a blunting of general sensibility. The text says: "Vision unimpaired".Nevertheless he sees imperfectly; he does not regard the object his gaze is fixed upon; that is,his range of vision appears to be correct, yet if questioned a little as to what he saw, he has norecollection of it; it has made no impression upon his memory or his mind.Vertigo, with nausea and vomiting. Vertigo from stooping. With the general stupefaction thehead rolls and tosses. The child lies upon the back and rolls the head from side to side. The eyes arepartly open, and he keeps boring the back of the head into the pillow. This is partly unconscious andpartly to relieve the drawing in the muscles of the back of the neck. These muscles keep shortening, asthe disease progresses, just as they do in cerebro-spinal meningitis; until the head is drawn back as faras it can go.There is burning heat in the head; shooting pains; pressive pains in the head from congestion.Violent occipital headache.Dull aching in the occiput; benumbed feeling in the occiput. A feeling like wood; fullness,congestion and pressure. The headaches, the motions of the head and the appearance of the face arethose occurring in congestion of the brain. I have seen children, after passing through a moderatelyacute but rather passive first stage, lie in this stupid state, needing Hellebore for weeks before theyreceived it. When it was given, repair set in; not instantly, but gradually. The remedy acts slowly inthese slow, stubborn, stupid cases of brain and spinal trouble.Sometimes there is no apparent change until the day after the remedy is administered or eventhe next night, when there comes a sweat, a diarrhea, or vomiting---a reaction. They must not beinterfered with no remedy must be given. They are signs of reaction. If the child has vitality enough torecover, he will now recover. If the vomiting is stopped by any remedy that will stop it, the Helleborewill be antidoted. Let the vomiting or the diarrhea or the sweat alone, and it will pass away during theday. The child will become warm, and in a few days wilt return to consciousness---and then what willtake place? just imagine these benumbed fingers and hands and limbs, this benumbed skin everywhere.What would be the most natural thing to develop as evidence of the rousing up of this stupid child? It isnecessary for you to know this. It is not really a part of the teaching of the homeopathic materiamedica, but you must know what to expect after giving this remedy. It is a clinical observation whichyou will see if you see Hellebore cases, and Zincum cases. Zincum is, if possible, even more profoundin its dreadful state of stupefaction than Hellebore. Well, that child's fingers will commence to tingle.As he comes back to his normal nervous condition, the fingers commence to tingle, the nose and earstingle, and the child begins to scream and toss back and forth and roll about the bed. The neighbors willcome in and say, "l would send that doctor away unless he gives something to help that child"; but justas sure as you do it you will have a dead baby in twenty-four hours. That child is getting well; let himalone. You will never be able to manage one of these cases if you do not take the father into a room byhimself and tell him just how the case will proceed. Do not take the mother; do not tell her a wordabout it, unless she is an unusually excellent mother, because that is her child, and she is sympathetic,and she will cry when she hearts that child cry; she will lose her head and will insist upon the fatherturning you out of doors. But you take the father aside beforehand and tell him what is going to happen;