Sepia

Sepia is adapted to persons of dark hair, rigid fibre, but mild and easy disposition ( Puls. ).

Diseases of women: especially those occurring during pregnancy, child-bed and lactation; or diseases attended with sudden prostration and sinking faintness ( Murex , Nux m. ); “the washer woman’s remedy.” complaints that are brought on by or aggravated after laundry work.

Pains in Sepia extend from other parts to the back (rev. of Sab. ); are attended with shuddering (with chilliness, Puls. ).

Particularly sensitive to cold air, “chills so easily;” lack of vital heat, especially in chronic diseases (in acute diseases, Led. ).

Sensation of a ball in inner parts; during menses, pregnancy, lactation; with constipation, diarrhoea, haemorrhoids, leucorrhoea and all uterine affections.

Faints easily: after getting wet; from extremes of heat or cold; riding in a carriage; while kneeling at church.

Coldness of the vertex with headache ( Ver. – heat of vertex, Calc. , Graph. , Sulph. ).

Anxiety: with fear, flushes of heat over face and head; about real or imaginary friends; with uterine troubles.

Great sadness and weeping. Dread of being alone; of men; of meeting friends; with uterine troubles.

Indifferent: even to one’s family; to one’s occupation ( Fl. ac. , Phos. ac. ); to those whom she loves best.

Greedy, miserly ( Lyc. ).

Indolent: does not want to do anything, either work or play; even an exertion to think.

Headache: in terrific shocks; at menstrual nisus, with scanty flow; in delicate, sensitive, hysterical women; pressing, bursting < motion, stooping, mental labor, > by external pressure, continued hard motion.

Great falling of the hair, after chronic headaches or at the climacteric.

Yellowness: of the face; conjunctiva; yellow spots on the chest; a yellow saddle across the upper part of the cheeks and nose; a “tell tale face” of uterine ailments.

All the coverings of the neck felt too tight and were constantly loosened ( Lach. ).

Herpes circinatus in isolated spots on upper part of body (in intersecting rings over whole body, [Tell.]).

Pot-belliness of mothers (of children, Sulph. ).

Painful sensation of emptiness, “all-gone” feeling in the epigastrium, relieved by eating ( Chel. , Mur. , Phos. ).

Tongue foul, but becomes clear at each menstrual nisus, returns when flow ceases; swelling and cracking of lower lip.

Constipation: during pregnancy ( Alum. ); stool hard, knotty, in balls, insufficient, difficult; pain in rectum during and long after stool ( Nit. ac. , Sulph. ); sense of weight or ball in anus, not > by stool.

Urine: deposits in a reddish clay-colored sediment which adheres to the vessel as if it has been burned on; fetid, so offensive must be removed from the room (horribly offensive after standing, [Indium])..

Enuresis: bed is wet almost as soon as the child goes to sleep ( Kreos. ); always during the first sleep.

Gleet: painless, yellowish, staining linen; meatus glued together in morning; obstinate, of long standing ( Kali iod. ); sexual organs, weak and exhausted.

Violent stitches upward in the vagina; lancinating pains from the uterus to the umbilicus.

Prolapsus of uterus and vagina; pressure and bearing down as if everything would protrude from pelvis; must cross limbs tightly to “sit close” to prevent it; with oppression of breathing (compare Agar. , Bell. , Lil. , Murex , Sanic. ).

Irregular menses of nearly every form – early, late, scanty, profuse, amenorrhoea or menorrhagia – when associated with the above named symptoms.

Morning sickness of pregnancy: the sight or thought of food sickens ( Nux ); the smell of cooking food nauseates ( Ars. , Colch. ).

Dyspnoea: < sitting, after sleep, in room, > dancing or walking rapidly.

Erythism; flushes of heat from least motion; with anxiety and faintness; followed by perspiration over whole body; climacteric ( Lach. , Sang. , Sulph. , Tub. ); ascends, from pelvic organs.

Itching of skin; of various parts; of external genitalia; is > scratching; and is apt to change to burning ( Sulph. ).

Relations. – Complementary: Natrum mur.

Inimical: to, Lach. , should not be used before or after; to, Puls , with which it should never be alternated.

Similar: to, Lach. , Sang. , Ustil. , in climacteric irregularities of the circulation.

Frequently indicated after: Sil. , Sulph.

A single dose often acts curatively for many weeks.

Aggravation. – In afternoon or evening; from cold air or dry east wind; sexual excesses; at rest; sultry moist weather; before a thunderstorm ( Psor. ).

Amelioration. – Warmth of bed, hot applications; violent exercise.

Many symptoms of Sepia, especially those of head, heart and pelvis, are both < and > by rest and exercise.

Sepia antidotes mental effects of overuse of tobacco, in patients of sedentary habits who suffer from over-mental exertion.