Symphytum Officinale


Symptoms of the homeopathic remedy Symphytum Officinale from the Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica by Constantine Hering, a ten volumes comprehensive record of confirmed symptoms, published in 1879….


     Comfrey ; Healing Herb. Borraginacea.

     A native of Europe, where it grows on banks of streams and in meadows ; also found in United States.

     The tincture is prepared from the fresh root.

     Introduced by Jeanes.

     Fragmentary proving by Macfarlan.

CLINICAL AUTHORITIES.

Injury to eye, Gross, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 1, p. 317 ; Inflammation of inferior maxillary bone, Cate, B. J. H., vol. 34, p. 378 ; Pain in knee, Funk, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 5, p. 928 ; Fracture of bones, Gilchrist, Medorrhinum Inv., vol. 9, p. 79 ; Non-union of fracture, Hendrichs, A. H. Z., vol. 107, p. 71.

INNER HEAD.


Headache in occiput, in top of head, in forehead, changing places.
  

SIGHT AND EYES.


Pain in eyes after a knock or contusion of an obtuse body.
After being struck upon eye with a cane by a child, no visible injury, but a sensation on closing eye as if upper lid passed over an elevation on bulb of eye ; on waking eye could not be easily opened, seemed spasmodically closed.
  

HEARING AND EARS.


Cannot hear well ; feels as if ears were stopped up.
Inflamed ears.
  

LOWER FACE.


Inflammation of inferior maxillary bone ; hard, red swelling.
  

SCROBICULUM AND STOMACH.


Pains across epigastrium from one side to other, < opposite spleen, in walking ; when sitting < about navel ; griping pain.
  

FEMALE SEXUAL ORGANS.


Menses stopped ; headache, weight in forehead when she stoops ; has it almost all time ; a good deal of fever every other hour ; cold all day, cramp and diarrhoea ; nose sore inside ala, wants to pick it ; wants to rub her eyes ; inflamed ears ; feels as if something were in them, stopped up, cannot hear well.
  

NECK AND BACK.


Psoas abscess.
  

LOWER LIMBS.


More than a year ago fell and struck knee upon a stone ; wound healed and left scarcely any trace, but there remained an acute stitching pain in place, felt when clothing touched part, or when knee was bent.
Man suffering with a spontaneous luxation of thigh since childhood, fell and received a fracture of affected thigh ; after two months fragments were quite movable, and as union was despaired of, an apparatus was made which allowed him to sit on a chair during day ; Symphytum 4, four globules every six hours, brought about complete union in twenty days.
  

REST, POSITION, MOTION.


Sitting : pain about navel.
Stooping : weight in forehead.
Walking : pain opposite spleen.
  

ATTACKS, PERIODICITY.


Every other hour : fever.
All day : cold.
  

SENSATIONS.


As if upper lid passed over an elevation on closing eye ; as if ears were stopped up.
Peculiar pain : in periosteum, after wounds have healed.
Pain : in eyes after a knock or contusion ; across epigastrium.
Stitching pain : in healed wound on knee.
Griping pain : about navel.
Weight : in forehead when stooping.
  

TISSUES.


Bruises, sprains ; sore breasts.
Inflammation of bones ; diseased spinous processes.
Psoas abscess.
Facilitates union of fractured bones and lessens peculiar pricking pain ; favors production of callous.
  

TOUCH, PASSIVE MOTION, INJURIES.


Touch of clothing : acute pain in injured knee, after wound healed.
Wants to rest eyes.
Mechanical injuries, bad effects from blows, bruises, thrusts on eye.
Non-union of fracture, particularly when trouble is of nervous origin.
Injury to bones ; for example, when a blow on eyes injures orbital plates of frontal bone.
Irritable stump after amputation.
Peculiar pain in periosteum after wounds have healed.
Irritability of bone at point of fracture.
Gunshot wounds.
  

STAGE OF LIFE, CONSTITUTION.


Girl, at. 7, psoas abscess.
Miss P., at. 48 ; inflammation of inferior maxillary bone.
  

RELATIONS.


Compare : Arnic. in blows ; Acidum fluoricum, Hepar, Calcarea phos. and Silica in injuries to bones.

NOTE:
PLAIN TEXT : LOWEST & DESIGNATES AN OCCASIONALLY CONFIRMED SYMPTOMS;
Plain blue: MORE FREQUENTLY CONFIRMED;
BOLD BLUE : SYMPTOMS VERIFIED BY CURES;
BOLD RED : REPEATEDLY VERIFIED;
$BOLD ITALIC RED$ : AN APPROVED CHARACTERISTIC;
θ : STANDS BETWEEN CURED SYMPTOM & PATHOLOGICAL CONDITION;
** : OBSERVED FROM OLD SCHOOL OR NEW SCHOOL;
toxic : Toxicology;
r : Right;
l : Left;
< : Increased or aggravation;
> : Decrease or amelioration;
^^ : Symptoms observed only on the sick

C. Hering
Hering got the degree of M. D. from the University of Wuezburg with highest honours. The theme of his thesis was "De'Medicina Futura" (The medicine of future). Hering left Germany for West Indies and finally arrived at Philadelphia in Jan, 1833. He established a homeopathic school at Allentown, Pennsylvania, commonly known as "Allentown Academy". Soon he became very popular as a physician. He is known as the 'Father of Homeopathy' in America.