Digitalis purpurea. Fox-glove. *N. O. Scrofulariaceae. Tincture from the leaves of the second year of the plant.
Clinical
Amaurosis. Angina pectoris. Asthma. Bright’s disease. Cyanosis. Delirium tremens. *Dropsy. Fever. Gonorrhoea. Headache. *Heart, *affections of. Hydrocele. Hydrocephalus. Impotence. Jaundice. *Lungs, *congestion of. *Memory lost. Meningitis. *Noises in head. Paraphimosis. Prostate, enlarged. Ptyalism. Spermatorrhea. Toothache. Urinary disorders. Vision, disorders of.
Characteristics
There are three main symptoms in the *Digitalis pathogenesis which should be borne in mind: (I) *Slow, weak, irregular and intermittent pulse. (2) Enlarged, sore, painful liver. (3) White, pasty stools. Along with these is prostration from slight exertion. The mental condition is: anxious, low-spirited, tearful, wants to be alone, tries to escape if others force themselves on her. Anxiety as if conscience-troubled. “Anxious and concentrated sadness, with sleeplessness at night, owing to pains at the heart: for instance, from unhappy love, especially in women of brown complexions, firm and obstinate dispositions. In such cases far preferable to *Ignatia” (Teste). Teste classes *Digit. with *Bryonia and *Ignatia. The stomach symptoms (from portal engorgement) are nausea and vomiting, the mere sight or smell of food excites violent nausea, with clean tongue, thirst for water, absence of fever, the complaints may come either from excessive venery or from high living. In old men there are: enlarged prostate, impotence, lascivious thoughts. Malcolm Macfarlan (*H.P., xiii. 490) reports *Digit. having produced severe urethritis, phimosis, and strangury. He has cured with it many cases of gonorrhoea. Ballard cured a man of headache and dizziness originating probably in gonorrhoea suppressed several years before. He complained of feeling bad about the head after drinking, and this keynote symptom was elicited: ” after drinking cold water the pain would seat itself in the forehead and extend down the nose.” Delirium tremens in high livers, stomach and liver diseases with the mental state of the drug. Nausea worse from smell of food, not better by vomiting. The food eaten comes up by mouthfuls, cannot expectorate without vomiting. Every shock, like bad news strikes her in the epigastrium. Deathly sinking in the epigastrium. The use of *Digitalis as a remedy for pneumonia in the old school is well known. It has proved a very dangerous remedy, but it has been used by homoeopaths with very good effect in senile pneumonia (E. V. Ross., H. P., xvii. 177). Ross regards the indications as being: “Dry cough with mucous rales and no expectoration or only ‘prune juice’ expectoration, cyanosis, cold extremities, feeble, intermittent pulse, deathly nausea or gone sensation at epigastrium.” Restlessness with great nervous weakness. Lassitude, mental and bodily. Faintness.Convulsions, with retraction of head, syncope, and collapse. Among the peculiar sensations of *Digit. are: Sensation as if the heart would stand still if he moved, must hold the breath and keep still (*Gelsemium has “must keep moving or the heart would stop.”) As if the brain were loose, as if something fell forward in the head on stooping, as if the brain were made of fine glass and shattered at a blow, as if something were running out of urethra, as of a weight attached to stomach, as if the internal parts were grown together. As if the lungs were constricted and tied up in bundles. As if heart stood still, as if heart had torn itself loose and were swaying to and fro by a thin thread, as if the stomach would sink into abdomen. Terrible pain at root of nose after vomiting. Discharged blood coagulates slowly or not at all. Distended veins in eyes, ears, lips, and tongue. Blue skin. *Digitalis is suited to the climacteric period: sudden flushes of heat followed by great debility, least motion causes palpitation. Nervous lymphatic constitutions. Children with very white complexions, light hair, scrofulous. Most symptoms are worse at night or on waking in the morning. Symptoms are better when stomach is empty, worse after meals, from cold diet, after drinking (anything), worse from spirituous liquors. Motion worse most symptoms and may cause fatal collapse. Worse From being raised up in bed. Worse From touch or pressure. Great sensitiveness to cold air, cold weather, changes of weather, cold food, cold drinks, all of which worse. Getting heated worse cough. In a room, lachrymation is worse. With fear of suffocation there is desire for open air, and the symptoms of catarrh are better in open air. Worse From music, sadness from music.
Relations
*Antidoted by: Vegetable acids, Vinegar, infusion of galls, Ether, Camphor, Serpentaria. *It antidotes: Wine, Myrica cerif. (jaundice). *Compatible: Belladonna, Bryonia, Chamomilla, Chi., Lycopodium, Nux-v., Opium, Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Sepia, Sulphur, Veratrum *Incompatible: China (increases the anxiety), Nit-s-d. *Compare: Aconite (anxiety), Antim tart. (deathly nausea), Apocynum, Arsenicum, Belladonna, Bryonia, Camph., Chi., Conium, Zincum met., Kalm., Lachesis (sleep), Lobelia, Lycopus, Crataegus (weak heart), Natrum mur., (frequent and intermittent pulse), Phosphorus (genital symptoms), Spigelia, Sulphur, Tabacum (deathly nausea), Veratrum In gonorrhoea, Sulphur (Prepuce indurated, Digitalis, puffed, infiltrated with serum), paraphimosis, Coloc. Palpitation with diarrhoea, Antim tart. Act on base of brain, Lobelia, Tabacum One hand cold, the other hot, Chi., Pulsatilla, Ip., Mosch. Fainting before stool, Sulphur (*after stool, Nux-v., Crot-t.). Food eaten comes up by mouthfuls, Ferrum, Phosphorus Every shock strikes in pit of stomach, Phosphorus, Mez., Kali-c., Calcarea Cracking in head, Aloe. Headache extending into nose, Dioscorea
Causation
High living. Sexual abuse, or sexual excess. Alcohol.
SYMPTOMS.
Mind
Extreme anguish, especially in the evening, with disposition to weep and great fear of the future. Gloomy and peevish. Indisposed to speak, inclination to lassitude. Remorse. Tearful moroseness, with sensation of internal uneasiness. Indifference. Great love of labor. Weakness of memory. Nocturnal delirium and agitation. Sadness from music.
Head
Dizziness. Vertigo with trembling. Dullness of the head, with limited power of thinking. Jerking pressure in the head, especially during intellectual labor. Pressure in the forehead, from mental exertion. Tension in the forehead on turning the eyes. Tearing in temples and sides of the head. Shootings in the temples and in the forehead, sometimes extending to the point of the nose, especially after drinking anything cold. Stitches in the temples (evening and night). Itching in the brain, on one side of the head only. Sensation on stooping, as if the brain were falling forwards. Undulations in the brain, as if it contained water, with confusion in the head. (Hydrocephalus, sensation as if waves or water were beating on the skull, worse while standing, talking, shaking the head and bending the head backward, better when lying down or bending the head forward.) Swelling of the head. The head is constantly inclined backwards. Sudden cracking in the head (during a siesta) with starting, as in a fright.
Eyes
Aching in the eyes, greatly augmented by the touch. Burning pain and pressure above the eyes, with confused sight. Burning pain in the right eyebrow. Shootings in the eyes. Inflammatory redness of the conjunctiva and of the eyelids, with swelling, and sensation as if sand were introduced into the eyes. Blueness of the eyelids. Inflammation of the meibomian glands. Smarting lachrymation, increased by a bright light, and by cold air. Agglutination of the eyelids, with copious secretion of mucus ( in the morning). Disposition of the eyes to turn sideways. Pupils insensible and dilated. Sight confused, as if directed through a mist. Obscuration of the sight and complete blindness, as from amaurosis. Opacity of the crystalline lens. Painless obscuration of the lens. Illusion of the sight. Phantoms, visions, and the colors of the rainbow before the eyes. Dark bodies, like flies, hover before the eyes. Objects appear green or yellow. Sparks before the eyes. Diplopia.
Ears
Hissing before the ears, like boiling water (with hardness of hearing). Single stitches behind the ears. Otalgia, with tensive and contractive pains in the ears. Swelling of the parotids, and behind the ear.
Nose
Pain above the root of the nose. Coryza, with hoarseness.
Face
Paleness of the face (bluish hue under the pale skin.) Blue color of the lips and eyelids. Convulsions on one (left) side of the face.Cramp-like and drawing pains in the cheek-bones. Swelling of the cheek, with pain on being touched. Eruptions, with gnawing itching in the cheeks and in the chin. Pores of the face black and suppurating. Bluish swelling of the lips. Eruptions on the lips. Dryness of the lips.
Mouth and Throat
Roughness, excoriation and scraping in the mouth and throat, with clammy taste. Sweetish and fetid saliva. Profuse flow of frothy saliva compelling to spit all the time. Salivation with excoriation of the tongue, and of the gums. Bluish tongue. Swelling of the tongue. Ulcer on the tongue. Tongue loaded with white mucus (morning). Stinging in throat between acts of swallowing. Peculiar sensation in fauces as if walls of pharynx swollen, or as if they were constricted by swelling of tonsils. Spasmodic constriction of throat. Sore pain in swallowing.
