Crocus sativus. Saffron. *N.O. Iridaceae. Tincture of dried stigmas. Cooper makes a tincture of the fresh young shoots.
Clinical
Abortion, threatened. After-pains. *Anger. Asthenopia. Blepharospasm. Brain, congestion of. Chorea. Dysmenia. Fainting. Gastric affections. Hemoptysis. Haemorrhages. Headache. Heart, affections of. Hysteria. Lachrymation. *Laughter. Leucorrhoea. Mania. *Menstruation, *profuse. Metrorrhagia. *Nose, *bleeding of. Operations, effects of. Ophthalmia. Pregnancy, imaginary, affection of. Tumour. Ulceration. Wounds.
Characteristics
*Crocus has three characteristics which clearly call for its use when met with. The first is haemorrhage from various parts (nose, uterus, & c), when the blood is black, viscid, clotting, forming itself into long black strings, hanging from the bleeding orifice. The second is a peculiar sensation as if something alive were moving about in the abdomen or chest. This may be a definite sensation, or it may be a hallucination or fixed idea. A curious circumstance in this connection is the fact that *Crocus has often been successfully given to pregnant women who have complained of violent fetal movements, as well as in cases of imaginary pregnancy. The remaining characteristic is in the mental sphere. It is a rapid alternation of mental conditions: anger with violence rapidly followed by repentance, laughter quickly followed by tears. I once cured with a few doses of *Crocus a young artist who had become subject to violent outbursts of rage in which he would take up a knife to throw at his mother, with whom he lived, and almost immediately after would be abjectly repentant. The household was on the point of being broken up when the trouble was completely removed by *Crocus. Uncontrollable laughter is also in the *Crocus symptomatology. Hysterical laughter is one of the effects observed by the older physicians.
Teste cites from Murray the case of several children “who were seized with an extraordinary laughing mania, from having, smelled of leather bottles that had contained essence of saffron.” On one occasion, in hospital, I happened to see a young girl who was really desperately ill with heart failure and valvular disease, in a fit of hysterical laughter. This made me think of *Crocus. The only definite sensation she complained of in the heart region was a “jumping” sensation. *Crocus 30 was given, and very soon she was able to lie down flat (after having been propped up for weeks), and from that time she made a rapid recovery. Another *Crocus symptom is: Sensitive to music, involuntarily joins in on hearing any one sing. Stitches, shocks, throbbings, broad thrusts, Cuttings and jerkings are among the commoner sensations. Twitchings of single sets of muscles (chorea). A warm sensation ascending to the heart, impeding breathing and better by yawning is a peculiar symptom. Tingling, crawling, pricking and itching are met with in the skin. Scarlet redness of the whole body, or scarlet spots on skin. (It is a domestic remedy for “bringing out” the eruption of measles.) Painful suppuration of bruised parts, old cicatrized wounds re-open and suppurate. Lipoma and encephaloma of scalp. Tumour with ulceration and characteristic bleeding. The reputation of *Crocus in the cure of tumors is also an old one. It was used externally “to scatter indolent tumors and ecchymoses.” Cooper has given it new confirmation. He has given it in single doses of the O tincture in a case of malignant disease of the side following extirpation of cancerous kidney, with the result of arrest of progress after an initial aggravation, and complete relief of pain. The patient was a woman, who had formerly had haemorrhage with dark clots at the periods and feeling of weight towards womb. She had had also the sensation of something moving in the abdomen. Cooper agrees with Culpepper in thinking *Croc. very similar to *Calendula in its action.It is a vulnerary and corresponds to the effects of blows (deafness, tumors, etc.). *Crocus is especially suited to women and hysterical men. The symptoms are worse fasting, evening and night, during new and full moon, looking fixedly at an object, during pregnancy, in a hot room, in hot weather. Better by yawning (desire to take a long breath, better by yawning), in open air (for which there is craving), after breakfast. Great thirst for cold drinks.
Relations.
Crocus should be studied along with the other Iridaceae, the Alliaceae and the Liliaceae. It is *antidoted by: Aconite, Belladonna, Opium *Compatible: Chi., Nux-v., Pulsatilla, Sulphur *Compare: Platina In dark or black clotted flow, Croton (pain through left chest to back), Staphysagria better. (by yawning), Fl-ac. (sensation of cold wind blowing across eyes), Codein (twitching of muscles,
especially of eyeballs), Lachesis (pains in eye to top of head), Tarent. (contractions of single groups of muscles), Calcarea, Ip. Ignatia Tarent. (hysteria, hearing music wants to join in. In Tarent. music subsequently better: in Croc. it does not). Wants to jump (Tarent., Stramonium, Stict, Asarum europaeum, Agaricus), wants to kiss, Agaricus In miscarriage at third month, Sabin., Kreosotum In violent movements of fetus. Opium, Silicea, Thu., Sulphur, in heat in heart, Rhododendron, Lachn., Opium
SYMPTOMS.
Mind
Great tendency to sadness, sometimes alternating with great gaiety and joyousness. Great inclination to laugh, to jest, and to sing, sometimes with excessive weakness. Loquacious. Sings involuntarily, and then laughs. Immoderate, improper laughter, changeable disposition. Frolicsome and jesting mania, with paleness of face, headache, and obscuration of the eyes. Abandonment of free will. Choleric passion and violence,
frequently followed by prompt repentance. Alternate austerity and mildness of character. Forgetfulness and distraction. Quickness of memory.
Head
Stupefying cephalalgia, as during intoxication, with down-cast eyes.Giddiness, as if intoxicated, in the forehead, in the room, but not in the open air. Vertigo, with fainting. Confused vertigo on rising from a reclining posture. Vertigo when raising the head, with heat of the whole body. Cephalalgia above the eyes, with burning pain, sensation of burning and aching in the eyes, especially in the evening, by candle-light. Head heavy in the morning, with aching at the vertex. Drawing pain in the forehead, with nausea. Semi-lateral pulsation in the head, and in the face (left side, extending into the eye). Blows in the forehead and the temples. Sensation of looseness of the brain, during movement (as if it were tottering to and fro).
Eyes
Itching in the eyelids. Tingling in the eyebrows. Pressure, pain as from excoriation, and sensation of burning in the eyes, and in the eyelids, especially on closing them, and on reading, or in the evening by candle-light. Sensation of swelling in the eyes, as from much weeping. Dryness of the eyes. Lachrymation on reading. A quantity of tears rush from the dim eyes as soon as he begins to read. Lachrymation in the room, not in the open air. Heating and lancinating pains in the eyes after surgical operations. Nocturnal agglutination of the eyelids. Visible quivering of the eyelids. Heaviness and cramp-like contractions of the eyelids. Nocturnal cramps in the eyelids. Constant winking of the eyes (inclination to wipe the eyes, as if a pellicle of gum were drawn over them). Pupils dilated. Constant necessity to rub the eyes. Confused sight, as when looking through a veil, esp., in the evening, when reading by candle-light. When reading, the white paper seems of a pale rose colour. Sparkling before the eyes. Sudden flashes like electric sparks (during the day).
Ears
Otalgia, similar to a cramp. Tinkling in the ears, in the evening, after lying down. Buzzing in the ears with hardness of hearing, especially on stooping.
Nose
Epistaxis of black and viscid blood, often only from one nostril at a time, with cold perspiration on the forehead, and occasional fainting. Violent and frequent sneezing.
Face
Face of an earthy colour. Redness and paleness, alternately, in the face. Circumscribed, burning red spots on the face. Burning heat in the face, especially in the morning. Lips cracked and ulcerated. Pulsation on one side of the face.
Mouth
Scraping and roughness in the mouth. Accumulation of water in the mouth. Tongue moist, and charged with a white coating, with erection of the papillae. Unusual warmth in the mouth.
Throat
Sore throat as if caused by elongation of the uvula, or as if there were a plug in the throat, during deglutition, and at other times. Scraping and roughness in the throat (in the evening before and after, but not during the time he takes his food).
Appetite
Nauseating, acid, sweetish taste. Nausea, disappearing in the open air. Sweet or bitter taste in the bottom of the gullet. Constant thirst in the evening, with uneasiness in the abdomen after drinking. Absence of appetite, with sensation of fullness, however, little be eaten.
Stomach
Empty risings, while fasting in the morning. Pyrosis after eating with a good appetite. Heartburn after eating. Qualmishness, uneasiness, and sensation of oppression, in the epigastrium. Burning pain in the stomach. Borborygmi, and fermentation in the epigastrium. Great sinking sensation at epigastrium. Drawing in the pit of the stomach, back and forth, and up and down. Some violent stitches in pit of stomach.
