Helleborus niger


Helleborus niger signs and symptoms of the homeopathy medicine from the Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica by J.H. Clarke. Find out for which conditions and symptoms Helleborus niger is used…


      Black Hellebore. Christmas Rose. N. O. Ranunculacee. Tincture of day powdered root. Juice of fresh root mixed with equal parts of alcohol.

Clinical

Albuminuria. Amenorrhea. aphthae. Apoplexy. Cholera. Concussion. Convulsions. Cystitis. *Depression of spirits. Diarrhoea. *Dropsy. Epilepsy. *Headache Hernia. Home-sickness. Hydrocele. *Hydrocephalus. Kidneys, congestion of. Melancholia. *Meningitis. Night-blindness. Puerperal convulsions. Scarlatina. Tetanus. Typhoid fever. Ulcers. Wounds.

Characteristics

*Black Hellebore was one of the drugs used to produce the “Helleborism of the ancients,” the subject of Hahnemann’s famous essay, but the drug most commonly employed was the *White Hellebore,* or *Veratrum album, which belongs to another family, the Melanthaceae. “Black” hellebore receives its name from the external colour of its root, the root of *Veratrum alb. is extremely white. Teste quotes Hahnemann as saying: “I conclude from various observations that one of the first effects of *Black Hellebore is a kind of stupor, a dulness of the sensorium commune, a condition where, with sight unimpaired, nothing is seen very fully, and the patient does not pay any attention to anything, with the hearing perfectly sound, nothing is heard distinctly, with perfectly constituted gustatory organs, everything seems to have lost its taste, where the mind is often or always without ideas, where the past is forgotten or little remembered, where nothing gives one any pleasure, where one’s sleep is very light, and a really sound, refreshing sleep is not to be had, and where one desires to work without having the necessary strength or attention required for it.” Teste groups *Helleborus n. in the *Chamomilla class, with *Gratiola and *Viola tric., all of which cause “a particular derangement of the cerebral functions and even of the whole nervous system, a painful increase of the sentient action, followed by a considerable depression of the vital forces, and a certain disorder of the mental faculties.” He cured with *Helleborus n. a case of epilepsy in a little girl five weeks old after the failure of *Chamomilla *Chamomilla was given to the nurse, *Helleborus n. directly to the patient. The history was this: The child, which was well formed, was constipated from the day of birth. The mother, twenty-eight, dark, robust, but of irritable temperament, laid the child’s sickness to a fear she had towards the end of her pregnancy. This may have been the case, but the lady had lost a boy in convulsions, precisely similar, the previous year. The little girl had every day five or six paroxysms, each lasting from one to three minutes, and almost always followed by sleep. There was sudden inability of the body, without any marked stiffness, head slightly thrown back, repeated oscillations of tongue from right to left, the tongue being slightly protruded from the mouth. Starting look, convulsive rolling upward of eyes when the paroxysms were very violent, a few acute cries followed by drowsiness, when the spasm was near its end. During the paroxysm the child remained so perfectly sensible that a slight shock, as the shutting of a door, arrested the paroxysms at once, and then shortened them a good deal. *Helleborus n. cured in two or three days. From a purely nervous derangement of this kind, the action of *Helleborus n. goes on to actual inflammatory states of the brain and its meninges. The drowsiness so prominent in Teste’s case is a leading note of the conditions of meningitis and fever to which the drug is homoeopathic. Such a condition is found when effusion has taken place from the inflamed membranes, and here the ancient reputation of *Helleborus n. in dropsical conditions is confirmed. The forehead is wrinkled, there are automatic movements of one arm and leg, whilst the other is paralysed, the head rolls from side of side with screams, greedy drinking of water, chewing motion of jaws, urine scanty or entirely suppressed, sometimes with sediment like coffee grounds. This condition of urine is an indication for *Helleborus n. in many states, and a sign of the favorable action of the remedy is, as Nash points out, an increase in the amount of flow. In post- scarlatinal dropsy with these indications it is of great service. It has cured concussion of the brain resulting from a blow on the head after *Arnica had failed. In this case one pupil was larger than the other, the patient was drowsy, answered questions slowly, one leg dragged on walking. In fever there is sooty appearance of nostrils, dry, yellow tongue with red edges, breath horribly offensive, drinks roll audibly into stomach, fever worse 4 to 8 p.m., face pale, almost cold, pulse faint, imperceptible, picks clothes and lips. Guernsey sums up the remedy thus: “In dropsical affections, dropsy of outer parts and of inner parts, parts which are usually white turn red, absence of thirst in all complaints, chilliness, heat, perspiration without thirst. Discharge of urine too scanty, urine with dark sediment like coffee grounds _ top part is clear, but leaving this sediment. Nausea at the stomach, rumbling and rolling in the bowels, darting in the joints, also in the bones, heat with shuddering.” In addition to the “absence of thirst” there is “:drinks with avidity, bites spoon, but remains unconscious,” and “Thirst with disgust for drink.” as there is also “Hunger: child nurses greedily with disgust for food.” Hunger, yet food is repulsive through it tastes natural. The hungry, nauseated, uneasy sensation at the epigastrium showing its profound action on the solar ganglion. Cooper, who has studied the Hellebores very closely, says that they produce the “sinking sensation” more intensely than any other drugs. The Winter Aconite *(Eranthis hyemalis), a close ally of *Helleborus n., “acts on the solar plexus and works upwards, causing dyspnoea.” He quotes (*H. W., xxx. 210) from *Flora Historica an interesting account of how French prisoners of war at Norman-cross were suffering from an epidemic of night-blindness (nyctalopia), when for lack of snuff they took to using powdered *Black Hellebore, with the result that they were cured of their blindness in a few days. Among the dropsies cured may be mentioned hydrocele from suppressed eruptions. The old use of *Helleborus As an application to ulcers seems to have depended on its property of draining the tissues. In the pathogenesis of *Helleborus foet. Is a symptoms bearing on this: “profuse discharge from ulcerated surface.” Cooper has cured ulcers with dropsical conditions with *Helleborus n. and *Hell-v. given internally. The headaches of *Helleborus n. are stupefying, sensation as though contents of head were bulging at forehead and eyes, shocks pass through the brain like electricity, boring and shaking in forehead and occiput, bruised pain, heat in brain. Pains in occiput and nape of neck I have frequently cured with *Helleborus n., also headache which the patient can only describe as a “stupid headache.” There is vomiting and purging as with the other Hellebores, the vomit is apt to be green and the stools jelly-like. There pulse is slow and feeble, the respiration is slow and the temperature low. Torpidity and apathy run through the remedy. In this it approaches *Opium. Apoplexy followed by idiocy. The symptoms are worse 4 to 8 p.m., and in the evening and night (sees spirits, rolls head, dry cough, night-blindness), worse in cool air, from uncovering, better in warm air, by wrapping up. Worse From exertion, from motion, from stooping, breathing easier when lying down, lying perfectly quiet better pain in head. Touch worse. Worse When thinking of ailment, better when mind is diverted.

Relations

*Antidoted by: Camph., Chi. *Compatible: Zincum met., Belladonna, Bryonia, Chi., Lycopodium, Nux v., Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Sul. *Compare: Apis. (Apis has exquisite sensitiveness of abdomen, *Helleborus n. complete sensorial apathy, Helleborus n. has puckering of face, dropping of jaw, and automatic action of limbs of one side, Apis has worse from heat, Helleborus n. better from heat), Apocy., Digit. (slow pulse), Kali- br., Lachesis, Digitalis, Terebintha (breathes better lying down), Phos-ac. (sensorial depression, drowsiness, apathy, but Phos-ac. can be roused easily, muscles not completely relaxed, has not the dirty nostrils of Helleborus n.); Opium (but the stupor of Opium is more profound, face dark, breathing stertorous), Zincum met. (checked exanthemata, hydrocephalus, Zincum met. has fidgety motion of feet), Lachesis (Coffee-ground sediment in urine, muscular weakness, jelly- like mucous diarrhoea accompanying dropsy), Pip. Meth., Ox-ac. ( better when mind diverted), Natrum mur. ( worse from consolation).

Causation

Checked exanthemata. Blows. Disappointed love.

SYMPTOMS.

Mind

Melancholy taciturnity. Excessive, and almost mortal anguish. Home-sickness. Hypochondriacal humor. Taedium vitae, envious seeing others happy. Suicidal. Indolence. Sobbing lamentation. Obstinate silence. Irritable, worse from consolation. Suspicious. Dullness of the internal senses. Stupidity and want of reflection, with (thoughtless) fixedness of look on one single point, much moaning, and inability to think. Weakness of the memory. The mind seems to lose command over the body, the muscles refuse their office as soon as the attention is diverted (if the will is not strongly fixed upon their action, if he talks he lets fall what he holds in his hand).

John Henry Clarke
John Henry Clarke MD (1853 – November 24, 1931 was a prominent English classical homeopath. Dr. Clarke was a busy practitioner. As a physician he not only had his own clinic in Piccadilly, London, but he also was a consultant at the London Homeopathic Hospital and researched into new remedies — nosodes. For many years, he was the editor of The Homeopathic World. He wrote many books, his best known were Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica and Repertory of Materia Medica