Lobelia syphilitica


Lobelia syphilitica 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 Lobelia syphilitica is used…


      Lobelia syphilitica. L. cerulia. Great Blue Lobelia. (Grows in low grounds in U.S.) *N. O. Lobeliaceae. Tincture of fresh plant. Acetum.

Clinical

Acidity. Adenoids. Asthma. Back, pains in. Borborygmi. Cartilages, pains in. Catarrh. Coryza. Cough. Dyspepsia. Eustachian catarrh. Flatulence. Hay-fever. Influenza. Kidneys, pains in. Lumbago. Melancholia. Post-nasal catarrh. Pylorus, pain in. Sciatica. Spine, pains in. Spleen, affections of. Stomach cough. Throat, sore.

Characteristics

The symptoms of the *Lobelia syph. proving, while in many points analogous to those of the other *Lobelias, do not bring out the emetic properties of *Lobelia inflata. There is, however, epigastric sinking, flatulence, dyspepsia, and diarrhoea. *Lobelia card., *Lobelia inf., and *Lobelia syph. all have a milky juice. Hale quotes Rafinesque as saying that the analysis of *Lobelia syph. shows it to contain Silex, Iron, and Muriate and Phosphate of Lime. The marked action of *Lobelia syph. on the posterior nares led Cooper to use it with success in cases of deafness arising from an “unhealthy, soft, swollen, easily bleeding catarrhal” condition of the nose-pharynx. This is emphasized by another symptom: “Dull aching pain in center of forehead, over root of nose.” Cooper (who uses an acetic preparation) considers that with this, as well as with the *Inflata, a history of suppression is a leading indication. There are many notable symptoms in the back, back of chest, and about the lower ribs. Some of these led Jeanes (the first prover) to make a very fine cure of melancholia in an educated, intelligent man, of which these were the characteristics: “Great depression of spirits, unhappy state of mind, always associated with pain about and under short ribs in back on left side, extending outward nearly to left side, posterior aspect of region of spleen.” In the proving there was this: Pain on inside of right scapula. Farrington adds this: “Pain under (not below) inner border of left scapula, worse after weeping.” The pains of *Lobelia syph. travel about, from right to left, from left tonsil to right, from back down legs, from eighth rib downward, aching from back of head down nape. Then there are frequent *synalgias: Pain in right maxillary joint, with pain in middle of right lung, pain in breast and larynx, pain in left side of chest near axilla, with aching in left shoulder and arm. Touch worse (soreness of ischium). Motion worse. Deep inspiration worse. Drinking cold water better (temporarily) gastric symptoms. Mental exertion worse (mental state). Reading and writing worse pain in forehead. Internal nose painfully sensitive to cool air. Inhaling moderately cool air worse. Flushing after dinner better somewhat in open air. Symptoms worse after dinner. worse At night. Secretion of thick mucus better throat soreness.

Relations

*Compare: Other Lobelias, Pulsatilla (mental depression and weeping), Chelidonium and Ranunc. (scapular pains), Hydrast. (postnasal catarrh), Cean. (spleen). Lobelia i. has one-sided coating of tongue. Lobelia s. has left half of palate dry. Podophyllum relieved the diarrhoea of Lobelia s., but not the acute abdominal pains.

Causation

Grief. Suppressions.

Mind

Frequent mistakes in spelling and writing (with confused feeling and slight aching in head (after 15 min.). Depressed, temper unhappy, with pain in posterior aspect of spleen. Brain weakness, exertion of mind intolerable, seemed as if he would go wild.

Head

Dizziness worse moving about. Headache continuing till day- light. Headache, after dinner. Dull pain in forehead over eyes (and especially over root of nose), worse reading and writing. Pain in both mastoid processes, first and worse in right Acute pain along right frontotemporal suture. Stitching pain in left temple. Pain in left parietal protuberance.

Eyes

Heaviness over eyes, like a weight, but no pain, with drowsiness. Burning in right eye with a tear. Itching of left internal canthus, in external canthus. Boring pain in right orbit. Drawing sensation under right eye, afternoon. Feeling of foreign body under right upper lid with smarting and burning. Soreness of right tarsi. Soreness of eyeballs from turning them.

Ears

In left ear: pain, continued itching about posterior edge of meatus.

Nose

Frequent sneezing with severe and painful jarring in breast and larynx, larynx feels stretched almost to bursting, with copious discharge of thick mucus from both nostrils, at sunset. Painful irritation of both sides of cartilaginous septum, worse immediately behind the columna nasi, sensitive to cool air. Itching and tingling in left nostril as if about to sneeze. (Postnasal catarrh.).

Face

Flushed face, with heat, when lying down. Face flushed and headache after dinner, with drowsiness and lassitude, but inability to sleep when lying down, better open air. Sensation of dropping under left cheek-bone, afternoon. Drawing pain in right cheekbone. Perfect dryness of lips, and a feeling of dryness and sensitiveness of nostrils so that inhalation of air of moderate temperature (60) causes a painful feeling. Pain in right jaw- joint and in middle of right lung, afternoon.

Mouth

Frequent shooting pains through right teeth. Bleeding of gums with putrid taste. A renewed secretion of thick mucus, apparently on inferior surface of palate, renewed by snuffing and hawking, with still further diminution of throat soreness. Dryness of left half of palate. Constrictive feeling of skin of mouth and tongue, especially at left commissure of jaws, ten minutes later towards root of tongue. Great soreness, rawness, pricking, dryness of lower surface of palate, extending forward through mouth, better by secretion of mucus and at noon, but still continued.

Throat

Increased secretion of mucus. Thick mucous secretion in throat with better of constricting rawness, dryness, and soreness. Dryness of throat with sensation as if pharynx was open like a funnel. Pain in region of left tonsil (immediately), of right tonsil (after 16 minutes). Sensation of a lump in upper part of esophagus.

Stomach

(Acid eructations 5 to 6 a.m.) _ Water-brash 8 a.m. Dyspepsia uniformly better by drinking cold water. Sinking in stomach followed by borborygmi below epigastrium. Slight pain in region of pylorus. Awoke 6 a.m. with violent pain in stomach and pain and borborygmus in bowels, followed by copious watery stools with tenesmus and soreness of anus, four attacks one day increasing in violence, colic and diarrhoea better by *podoph., but the pain in stomach with sense of distension increased, with hunger. Jolting of an easy carriage causes pain in stomach and both hypochondria.

Abdomen

Borborygmi: below epigastrium worse after dinner, in lower abdomen towards right side. Woke 3 a.m. with flatulence but inability to pass it. Pains in abdomen, most below umbilicus, followed by diarrhoea, afternoon and evening.

Stool

Copious watery stools with tenesmus and soreness of anus. Loose stools. Ineffectual effort at stool, but free evacuation of tasteless wind on rising from bed.

Urinary Organs

Itching and smarting in fore part of urethra. Increased quantity of urine with free discharge. A small quantity of water, which he is obliged to retain for some time, causes pain in bladder, when evacuated, of deep amber colour.

Respiratory Organs

Larynx feels stretched almost to bursting. Much tickling about top of larynx with disposition to hacking cough, evening. Morning hoarseness from state of stomach. Dyspeptic stomach cough. Slight mucous expectoration, evening. Dry, hacking cough of four weeks’ duration, day and night, with pain right side about junction of sixth rib with its cartilage, of a year’s duration, dryness of back of throat.

Chest

Pain middle right lung and right jaw-joint. Pain just anterior to cartilaginous margin of short ribs. Pain between shoulders and neck both sides. Aching pain in cartilage of sixth left rib. Rheumatic pain along right clavicle. Pain along juncture of sixth right rib with its cartilage. Pain in left chest near axilla with aching in left shoulder and arm. Oppression in lower chest as if breath did not reach there, distress in region of heart and audible “knocking” respiration (like sound of chopping wood), pain under short ribs and dry cough. Pain under left breast. Severe and painful jarring in breast and larynx, larynx feels stretched to bursting, frequent sneezing, at sunset.

Heart

Severe pain in region of heart about sunset.

Back and neck

Stiffness of nape ( worse left side) from looking up. Slight aching pain from back of head down nape. Pain, heavy, aching, in back under false ribs, worse night after lying down in bed, increased to cutting pain by deep inspiration, and worse turning in bed, less during the day. Cutting under false ribs forward and upward (not noticed after going to bed). Stitching pain in right back passing from eighth rib downward. Pain on inside edge right scapula. Pain, acute, sticking, in eighth dorsal vertebra, worse by least movement and deep inspiration. Pain and aching in posterior aspect of region of spleen. Pain in region of left kidney, stitch in right Pain commencing right side small of back, then going down to os ischium, very sore to touch. Great rigidity of spine, least motion exceedingly painful, pain goes from right to left side of back and shoots down leg.

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