Physostigma


Physostigma homeopathy medicine – drug proving symptoms from Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica by TF Allen, published in 1874. It has contributions from R Hughes, C Hering, C Dunham, and A Lippe….


Common name: Calabar bean.

Introduction

Physostigma venenosum, Balfour.

Natural order: Leguminosae. Preparation: Triturations of the whole bean.

Mind

Acted foolish; said it made him crazy (second day). Felt quite exhilarated during the morning; very gloomy towards noon (second day). Felt great anxiety about friends at home; could not get them out of my mind (third day). Feel very irritable (third day).

Does not wish to speak to some of his friends. Mental faculties unimpaired, unless perhaps it might be that I felt no alarm where my friends saw some reason for it (after 12 grains). Uncommon mental activity (second day). Perfect impossibility to concentrate my mind or to translate a single line (fourth day); perfect disinclination to any mental work; laziness and apathy reign supreme (fifth day). Difficulty of thinking or doing mental work (second day). It was difficult to concentrate thought (fourth day). Did not feel the usual flow of spirits, and was obliged to make an extra effort in speaking with people. Her thoughts wandered, and she had difficulty in fixing her attention. Mind wanders from study (third day). Peculiar inability to express my thoughts clearly and intelligently, with the headache (twelfth day). My mind is disturbed; cannot concentrate it, at times, on any one thing; unsettles me for study. Could not put my mind on anything; could not recollect anything; a mental exhaustion, not confusion. Nothing was right; too many things in the room; continually counting them.

Head

Confusion and Vertigo. In five minutes he felt as if he had drank a glass of liquor; the head was confused, there was vertigo, and the legs lost their strength; he staggered like a drunken man, and went to bed with his head swimming. He fell asleep, but woke repeatedly through the night with terrible thoughts; he feared he was becoming crazy, and that he might get up and do some mischief. Vertigo and slight nausea, at 4.30 P.M. (seventh day).

Giddiness, in some cases. Giddiness; (after one hour). Giddiness, very disagreeable (after one hour); with a constrictive feeling of head (after seven hours and a half); giddiness has been a constant symptom (after thirteen hours and a half). A slight degree of giddiness (after fifty minutes). A slight giddiness, which occurred in fifteen minutes, was ascribed to the force of the imagination, and I proceeded to take a warm shower-bath, which process, with the subsequent scrubbing, might take five or six minutes more; the giddiness was then very decided, and was attended with the peculiar indescribable torpidity over the whole frame which attends the action of Opium and Indian hemp in medicinal doses. I now swallowed the shaving water which he had just been using, by which the stomach was effectual emptied.

Nevertheless, I presently became so giddy, weak, and faint that I was glad to lie down supine upon the bed. On getting up, after a tolerable dinner, I was so giddy as to be glad to betake myself to the sofa for the evening (after 12 grains). Dizziness (after ninety-five minutes). Dizziness in the head, at 3 A.M. (third day). Dizziness, and a sensation of wavering in the brain was felt walking (after half an hour). In walking downstairs, great dizziness and dimness of vision. Progression and gait very unsteady; encountered the wall and handrail more than once on the way out. There was dizziness in walking, and it required an effort of the will to keep from staggering (third day).

Dizziness, with faintness and Muscae volitantes, on moving, at 1 P.M. (fourteenth day). At night a strange dizziness was perceptible; she held to the bed-stead to keep from falling, and made an effort to shake off the feeling. In the evening, in church, when in passing people in the doorway, if they stepped in front of me, felt very dizzy (second day). Unable to continue reading, especially because of the dizziness (after seventy-five minutes). Dizziness (after sixty minutes); in a slight degree (second day). General Head. Head drooping listlessly. Head feels as if it were falling forward; vertigo; stumbles on going up and downstairs (third day). Brain feels third (fifth day). Brain felt confused, after waking from midday nap (fifth day). Sensation as if the brain were loose and rolling about the skull (after one hour). Stupid feeling in the head (third day). Stupid feeling in the head (third day). Head feels stupefied, at 7 P.M. (eighth day). Head feels dull and heavy (tenth day). During the whole time of proving she felt heavy and dull in the head. Dull heavy feeling in the head, at 8 A.M. (sixth day). Heavy feeling in the head, and darting pains through the temporal regions, worse from motion (after one hour). Head dull, heavy, and full (fifth day).

Dull heavy feeling of head; headache through forehead. Feeling as if something heavy were pressing the brain out (sixth day). A dull, heavy, bruise-like pain in the whole brain, but rather more severe in the left temple, with a sensation of general fatigue; this continued throughout the day till evening, together with a general sensitiveness to cold or change of temperature (after four hours). Dull pain, and a disagreeable confused feeling in the head, worse from motion (after ten hours and a half). During pains in the head (after six hours and a half). Deep seated pain in the head, all day, aggravated by making a heavy or misstep, as if the brain were bruised (second day). Awoke with aching pains he whole brain, worse on left side (second day). Pain in the top and forepart of my head; this increased until I had to lie down; much better when I sat up in bed; strong pressure also relieved (second day). Pain in head, more severe over left eye, commencing in the morning; in the afternoon growing worse, and gradually increasing till 10 P.M., then beginning to subside; at same time, head bathed in warm perspiration (seventh day). Cannot study for the pain in my head (third day); could not study (fourth day).

Headache (second day); (third day). A severe headache occurred after drinking freely of new milk, which generally agreed with him (fifth day). (During the afternoon, a severe attack of my habitual headache set in (had a sunstroke about seven years ago, and since then the left frontal and temporal region is liable to severe pressing-boring pain, as if a coal of fire were imbedded there, and the heat radiating to all sides; the veins of the forehead are swollen and stand out prominently), steadily increasing towards evening), (second day); (old headache moderately on left side), (sixth day). Headache began about 5 o’clock, across top of forehead, increased till after going to bed and asleep, lying down. Constant headache, not severe, but more of a dull heaviness; confused feverish feeling, alternating from the forehead to the top of the head (eighth day). (While travelling, in the cars, had an attack of the customary headache, which lasted from noon till late at night; pain and throbbing in the forehead, worse on moving; irresistible desire to sleep; soporific sleep, extremely distressing; paleness of the face; the sleepiness he never had before; the face was pale, and the attack was unusually severe), (second day). Sudden attack of headache, with nausea and bitter rising, followed by dull pain under the sternum; it was increased by suddenly turning the head, bending forward, or throwing the shoulders forward. On auscultation, heart’s action was found to be retarded, with diminished impulse rate, 56; there were no abnormal sounds, but the radial pulse was very irregular and weak. He thinks the symptoms may have come from a strain he had about a month ago, in lifting a heavy weight, as he had a similar feeling at the time; he lifted moderately the same day he took the medicine, but was unaware of any strain at the time (third day). Dull stupid headache, from the top of the head down through the head, in the evening (sixth day). Dull headache, at 8 P.M. (second day). Dull headache, at 10 A.M. (third day). (Have been suffering from a dull pressing headache for nearly six months; comparatively free from it in the morning, on rising, but increased by the least mental exertion, until at night, after retiring, it would become almost unbearable; accompanying the pain were sleeplessness and inability to stop thinking; in the course of an hour or two, the headache would pass away suddenly, with a sharp radiating flash of pain, sometimes starting from the occiput and passing forward, at other times passing from before backwards; this headache I found to disappear after taking this medicine). Some headache (after eleven hours); arose with a dull headache, not persistent, at 8 A.M. (second day). Headache at times severe, generally a dull solid feeling (third day). Awoke at about 3 A.M. with a severe pressing headache, confined to sinciput and over left eye (ninth day). Stupefying headache; dull pain through forehead, worse over the left eye (after one hour and a quarter); headache increased; continuous through the entire day until about 6 P.M.

TF Allen
Dr. Timothy Field Allen, M.D. ( 1837 - 1902)

Born in 1837in Westminster, Vermont. . He was an orthodox doctor who converted to homeopathy
Dr. Allen compiled the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica over the course of 10 years.
In 1881 Allen published A Critical Revision of the Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica.