Medorrhinum – The Gonorrhoeal Nosode

Hahnemann’s archetypal remedies for sycosis were Thuja and Nitricum Acidum. Constantine Hering made the first suggestion that the gonorrhoeal discharge could be used as a medicine in 1833. In the same year Hahnemann used a remedy he called Franksches Tripper Ison, which was a nosode made from “French” gonorrhoea. The nosode was proven by Swan and studied by a number of homœopaths in the USA. H. C. Allen names Ren Dell, C. H. Allen, Finch, Norton, Frost, Farrington, Cleveland, Laura Morgan, Berridge, Wilder, Higgins, Ostrom, Nichols, Peace, Sawyer, Carr and Bigler. Its symptoms are well proven and clinically confirmed. Medorrhinum is obtained from purulent urethral secretion taken during the discharge from patients who are otherwise healthy and have not been treated by antibiotics or sulfanilamide. The presence of Neisseria Gonorrheae is confirmed by microscope and Gram tests. The nosode stock is a natural complex not a simple laboratory culture of gonococcus.

Nosode family: anthr., ba-sv., ba-tn., bac., bac-7., bac-10., bac-ts., bcg., brucel., botul., carc., coccal., coli., diph., dys-co., gaert., hippoz., influ., leprum, leptospira, lyss., maland., malar., med., methan., morb., morg., morg-g., mut., oscilloc., parat., parot., pert., pneu., prot., psor., pyrog., scir., staphyl., streptococ., syc-co., syph., tub., tub-a., tub-d., tub-k., tub-lar., tub-m., tub-r., tub-sp., v-a-b., vac., vario. Complements: calc-f., sulph., syph., thuj.

Images and Archetypes

The abused Daughter; defensive Amazon; clairvoyant, superstitious Medium; warring Hero; secret affairs; night people; walk on the wild side; someone is behind him; faces everywhere; everything is unreal; guilty of a crime or sin; secrets; sex and sexuality; cares not about going to heaven or hell.

Well Adapted To

The phlegmatic temperament. Useful for constitutional effects of mal-treated and suppressed gonorrhoea, when the best-selected remedies fail to relieve or permanently improve. For persons suffering from gout, rheumatism, neuralgia and diseases of the spinal cord and its membranes, even organic lesions ending in paralysis, which can be traced to a sycotic origin. For women, with chronic ovaritis, salpingitis, pelvic cellulitis, fibroids, cysts, and other morbid growths of the uterus and ovaries, esp. if symptoms point to malignancy, with or without sycotic origin. Children, pale, sour smelling, rachitic; dwarfed, and stunted in growth; mentally, dull and weak.

Suited To

The obsessive compulsive, passive aggressive, avoidant, paranoid, antisocial, addictive, borderline, schizoid personality disorders.

Miasms

Sycosis, pseudopsora TB, syphilis, vaccinosis, hepatitis, lymphosis, HIV/AIDS and cancer diathesis. For scirrhus, carcinoma or cancer, either acute or chronic in development when the symptoms correspond and a history of sycosis can be traced. This miasm is a potent precursor to cancer diathesis.

Ailments From

Affections from excitement, anticipation, foreboding, presentiment, stage-fright; bad news, admonition, admonition in children, reproaches, rudeness of others, contradiction, mental work, writing. Medorrhinum is born with strong sexual urges and curiosity that can be taken advantage of by others or repressed by puritanical parents. If taken advantage of they may abuse other children. If repressed they will feel guilty and dirty for their sexual feelings. Ailments from being exposed to adult sexuality too early, child abuse, incest, rape, pornography, adult magazines, etc. Suppressed gonorrhoea.

Mind

Mood affective disorders; depression, mania, manic-depressive bipolar states and melancholia. Obsessive compulsive, hysterical, anxiety and phobic neurosis. Paranoid disorders. Schizophrenia. Multiple personality disorder. Inferiority complex. Oedipal-Electra complex. Psychosexual disorders; nymphomania, satyriasis, sado-masochism. Deranged oral, anal, urethral and genital activations. Issues round homosexuality. Homicidal tendencies; sudden impulses to kill. Suicidal disposition; at night; at night, gets up and takes his pistol; thought of; on waking; by shooting. Autism. Retarded children. Learning disabilities. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The Persona of Medorrhinum is an intense, driven, passionate, adventure-seeking personality that possesses a vast amount of personal magnetism and charm. They can be very sensitive, insightful and sympathetic to the point of being clairvoyant. Hering wrote in his Guiding Symptoms: “Is always anticipating, feels most matters sensitively before they occur and generally correctly.” They seem to know what they want in life and will strive forward to attain their goals. They work hard and play hard and look out for themselves to the point they may appear self-centered. After a normal day of work is finished they like to go out on the town, and visit places where there is an opportunity to openly express their strong sensuality. They are celebratory, festive persons who enjoy an active nightlife and like to walk on the “wild side” and have desire for that which is normally forbidden. They are erotic people who will put on a good show if it helps them succeed in their sexual conquests. If you meet them at night they seem kind, cheerful, playful and exhilarated but the next day they are irritable, impatient, hurried and suspicious. They act as if a new lover is the most special person in the world at night and the next morning they don’t really want anything to do with them. Hering wrote in his Guiding Symptoms: “Cross all the day, exhilarated at night, wants to play.”

Medorrhinum is a remedy of extremes as the Persona and Shadow seem to be in competition for ascendency. When they are “up” they seem dynamic, passionate, perceptive, caring and loving so that they captivate those around them. When they are “down” they are possessive, selfish, cruel and emotionally inhibited. Within the psyche of the Medorrhinum Eros and Thanatos are wrestling for control of the Ego. This makes for a mixture of pleasure and pain in a manner that can become abusive and sadomasochistic. The sexual libido is very strong and hard for them to control. H. C. Allen wrote in his Materia Medica of Nosodes: “Intense and frequent erections day and night.” A woman is strongly affected by her sexual desire, especially after their monthly periods. Allen again: “Great sexual desire after menses, in a single woman.”

The patient may have been physically and sexually abused at a young age, which they either kept secret or have totally repressed so they don’t remember the incident. They may take part in dangerous sexual practices like erotic asphyxiation, etc. The patient often lives a secret life in which they wear a mask of respectability during the daytime and at night they may involve themselves in indecencies. They live by the idea that what others don’t know can’t hurt them. They don’t let persons get too close to them because they fear that their secrets will be revealed and everyone will see them for who they are. Medorrhinum always thinks there is something going on behind their backs or someone is watching or spying on them. Because of their superstitious nature everything is taken as a sign or omen, and they may change their activities accordingly, not out of knowledge, but out of fear.

The Medorrhinum patient is very nervous and they become very restless and full of anxiety, especially when anticipating an engagement or when a time is set. Their fearful nature leads to complaints from anticipation. The patient is in such a big hurry that time always seems to go too slow. Medorrhinum has persistent ideas, alternating states or erratic behavior, and they may be impulsive, abrupt or rude. They have many ideas but are uncertain in execution or often non-committal. There is great internal restlessness, which manifests as biting the nails and the “restless leg syndrome”. Like Syphilinum they feel tainted and are compulsive hand washers.

The Medorrhinum female, or a man with a strong Anima often finds themselves weeping, which > their symptoms. She cries when telling others about her discomfort and when they are spoken to. Men, and some women with a strong Animus, will tend to repress their emotions by holding back the tears and building a hard wall around their emotions. When Medorrhinum can’t express their emotions it leads to a wild desperate feeling as if they are going insane. There is a hard heartedness or cruelty that especially comes out in the treatment of children or animals. The patient’s moods alternate and they suffer despair of recovery and have anxiety about salvation. They reproach themselves for what is happening to them and they feel guilty. Hering wrote: “Feeling as if he had committed the unpardonable sin and was going to hell.”

As the patient begins to decline more noticeably there is a great lack of confidence. It is very difficult for such persons to open up and share their hopes, fears and past experiences. This fear and insecurity is increased as their concentration is becoming difficult and their memory is becoming weak. At first it is just for proper names, or things they have just read, or what they have just said or forgetful of words while speaking. Hering wrote: “In conversation he would occasionally stop, and on resuming make remark that he could not think what word he wanted to use.” The patient may suffer from complete failure of memory and intellect. They become so forgetful that they can’t remember the simplest things. Hering listed the following symptoms: “Entirely forgot what she had read, even previous line. Forgetfulness of names, words and initial letters. Cannot remember names; has to ask name of her most intimate friend; forgets her own.” They are so confused they confound the present with the past and make mistakes in time.

This state becomes so bad it leads to imbecility, dullness and transient unconsciousness. They can no longer tell reality from illusion and life feels like a nightmare. Hering again: “Sensation as if all life was unreal, like a dream.” Now their feelings of guilt give way to religious despair and feeling damned. The patient is always anticipating, fearing evil will happen, loss of reason or suicide. It fears it has committed the unpardonable sin, and cares little for the result, because of the seething, restless, uneasy, unbalanced nerves. Feeling of desperation; did not care if he went to heaven or hell. They become suicidal and want to kill themselves by shooting. Hering wrote: “Tendency to suicide; gets up in night and takes his pistol, but his wife prevents him.” If his wife did not prevent him, he may have completed the task.

Babies who need Medorrhinum often fail to thrive and look pale, malnourished, and suffer with eczema, catarrhal discharges and asthma. Their discharges are sour or fishy smelling. They often have a bright red diaper rash that looks like a scald. This is often because their urine is highly acidic. These babies will always try to roll over on the face or stomach because it makes them feel better. Young children will get in knee-elbow position and rock back and forth, sometimes violently. They will sleep with their buttocks in the air and their face down on the pillow. Their legs and feet are in constant motion and they are always wiggling and squirming, especially at night. Then they throw the covers off because their feet burn. Some have behavioral problems and will be very aggressive toward other children. They are prone to violent temper tantrums and will strike, kick and bite. They may either love or hate animals and be very cruel to them. They are very sexual and will play with their genitals and have incestuous impulses. This makes them candidates for sexual abuse or if told that touching their genitals, etc. is dirty they become guilty. The little girls and sensitive boys are very susceptible to criticism, weep and feel guilty when reprimanded. The guilt makes them feel shame but the sex sensations gives them pleasure causing the two states to become mixed leading toward sexual confusion in later life.

The patient has a sensation as if they are overheated in body, heart and soul. They feel burning with flushes of heat in the face and neck and internal heat as if the blood was boiling. They feel heat and pains with tensive and letting go character. There is great tension, constriction, restriction as if they are caged in wires that are twisted tighter and tighter. They feel pulling and tugging as if everything is being drawn tight and they must stretch hard to break free. They feel aching as if there is a dislocation and soreness and bruising all over the body. There is much quivering with numbness and tingling. They have a wild and desperate feeling as of incipient insanity. Dazed feeling; a far off sensation, as though things done today occurred a week ago. These patients have a core delusion that they are always being watched, followed or spied on. They see faces everywhere, think someone is behind him, someone is whispering behind them, etc. This may be a projection of their fears that their secrets will be revealed to the outside world. They dream about pain and see dead people, frightful ghosts, etc.

Depression and melancholia; < afternoon; < in company; from a seemingly harsh word; from music; from pollutions; after sleep; with suicidal disposition; with vomiting; > weeping. They cannot speak without crying. Is sure that she is worse, knows she is not going to live, cannot see any improvement, even when it is pointed out, has no fear of death, speaks calmly about it, and gives directions as to the disposition of her affairs. Despair, he did not care whether he went to heaven or hell. Alternation of happiness and gloominess

Mania; for work, industrious. Full of tics and manias; comic, picturesque, sometimes amusing, often troublesome, interesting to look at but difficult to live with.

Hysteria; cannot move limbs after waking.

Anxiety; anticipating, anticipating an engagement, when a time is set; of conscience, about salvation, hypochondriacal, about health, paroxysmal. The anxiety is felt in the stomach, chest, region of heart. There is anxiety on waking, < evening.

Fear, paranoia and phobias; in narrow places, claustrophobia; fear of animals, dogs and cats. Fear of poverty, impending danger, of death, of impending disease, of contagious epidemics, infection, of cancer, of being incurable, of paralysis, of suicide. Fear of the unknown, as if something had happened, something will happen, something terrible, horrible will happen, of misfortune, of evil, of ghosts. Fear of making a sensation, lest he should say something wrong, least he should say something wrong, during headache. Fear of examination. Fear of being alone, of being alone at night, of the dark, from noise, imagines that someone is behind them, of something creeping out of the corner, of imaginary things. Fear of her salvation, of being damned. There are overpowering panic attacks; fear of insanity, of losing his reason. Fear of suffocation, of suffocations at night. Fear of falling, of water, of large bodies of water.

Delusions

Delusions of animals, sees insects, mice, rats, large rats, mice, insects, etc., running across the room at night. Sees faces looking out of every corner, sees many faces, sees faces wherever he turns his eyes, or looking out from corners. Imagines people, someone is behind him, someone is behind him whispering; talking, with someone behind him; hears footsteps behind, someone walks behind him. Thinks they are being watched, she is being watched at night, he is spied on. Saw large people in the room at night; sees people coming in and looking at her and saying “come”; imagines women by the bedside; someone touches her head; felt a delicate hand smoothing her head from front to back. They hear voices, whispering, someone whispering to him, someone calls him, talking with dead people.

Imagines he is persecuted, he is pursued, he is pursued by enemies, and he is poisoned. Delusions of anything having happened, of anything terrible having happened. Religious delusions, of being doomed, sinned away his day of grace, he had committed a crime, is going to hell because he has committed an unpardonable crime. Thinks he is about to die, the time has come to die. Hears sounds, bells, when whistling, sound is double, with vibration as if two people whistle thirds. Thinks business cannot be accomplished. Everything is strange, familiar things are strange, everything is unreal, far-off. Delusions of fainting, faintness; he is falling. Time passes too slowly; a far-off sensation, as though things done today occurred a week ago.

Dreams

There are dreams of animals, dogs, being bitten by dogs, of snakes, of being bitten by snakes. The dreamer sees dead people, frightful ghosts and specters, nightmare. Dreams about pain, of exertion, exhausting, of walking. The dreamer sees women, on waking saw a woman of pleasant face, dressed in gray, standing by the bedside, wiping a tumbler, she backed miles away becoming very small. Dreams of drinking.

Physical Concomitants

History of sycosis. Often restores gonorrhoeal discharge. Is of service in the chronic pelvic diseases of women that date from a gonorrhoeal infection. Useful in obstinate rheumatism, when this obstinacy is due to a latent sycotic taint. Sleeps in knee-chest position. State of collapse; wants to be fanned all the time; craves fresh air. Great heat and soreness, with enlargement of lymphatic glands all over the body. Sore all over, as if bruised. Trembling all over (subjective); intense nervousness and profound exhaustion and state of collapse. Time passes too slowly. Many symptoms are worse, when thinking of them. Is cold and bathed with cold perspiration. Fetid odor of body. Oedema of limbs; dropsy of serous sacs. Disseminated sclerosis. Pains intolerable, tensive; nerves quiver and tingle.

Headache of exhaustion, or from hard work. Head feels heavy and is drawn backwards. Intense burning pain in the brain. Headache, from jarring of ears. Sensation of tightness and contraction in the head. Feels as if sticks in eyes. Feels as if she stared at everything. Partial deafness, pulsation in ears. Chronic nasal and pharyngeal catarrhs. Children with chronic catarrhal conditions. Nose dirty, tonsils enlarged, thick yellow mucus from nostrils; lips thickened from mouth breathing. Small boils break out on face during menses. Tongue coated brown and thick, blistered; canker sores. Throat sore and swollen; deglutition of either liquids or solids impossible. Throat constantly filled with thick, gray or bloody mucus from the posterior nares.

Craves stimulants. Desire for ale, ice, colds, oranges and green fruits. Cravings for liquor, salt, sweets, etc. Ravenous hunger, immediately after eating. Constant thirst; even in dreams she is drinking. Morning nausea. Vomiting of pregnancy. Rests more comfortably lying on abdomen. Oozing of fetid moisture from anus. Can pass stool only by leaning very far back. Sharp, needle-like pains in the rectum. Intense itching of the anus. Constriction and inertia of the bowels with ball-like stools. Diarrhoea from jarring of ears. Severe pain in the renal region (backache), > by profuse urination. Renal colic. Urine flows very slowly. Nocturnal enuresis. Painful tenesmus when urinating.

Intense menstrual colic, with drawing up of the knees and terrible bearing-down (labour-like) pains; must press feet against support, as in labour. Menses offensive, profuse, dark and clotted; stains difficult to wash out. Sycotic warts on the female genitals. Metrorrhagia at climacteric; profuse for weeks; in gushes on moving; with malignant disease of uterus. Sterility. Breasts and nipples, sore and sensitive to touch. Leucorrhoea thin, acrid, excoriating and emitting a fishy odour. Gleet; whole urethra feels sore. Enlarged and painful prostate with frequent urging and painful urination. Nocturnal emissions: followed by great weakness. Impotence.

Dyspnoea and sense of constriction; can inhale with ease, but no power to exhale. Incipient tuberculosis. Asthma, only > by lying on the face and protruding the tongue. Incessant, dry night cough. Cough, > from lying on the stomach. Sputa viscid, difficult to raise. Larynx feels sore. Lower limbs ache all night, preventing sleep. Burning of hands and feet; wants them uncovered and fanned. Sweat easy; towards morning. Burning heat, with sweat; wants to uncover, but is chilled thereby. Skin cold, yet throws off covers. Fiery red rash about anus in babies, “the water scalds it terribly.” Small pedunculated warts, with pin-heads, like small button mushrooms, on various parts of body and thigh.

Grand Sensations

Faintness, fainting, faintness especially during urination, emptiness, hollow, loose, hanging down loose suspended, collapse, activity increased, hot blooded, burning, burning in blood vessels, flushes of heat, flushes of heat alternating with chills, burning with flushes of heat in face and neck, internal heat as if blood were boiling hot in veins, heat and pains with tensive and letting go character, throbbing, pulsations, constricted, caged with wires twisted tighter and tighter, spasms, convulsions, drawing, drawn tight, heavy-drawing-wandering, pulling, stiff, tension, tightness, tight band, stretching, must stretch, boring, grinding, grating, aching, dislocated, sore and bruised all over body, sharp, shooting, sharp or dull quick, darting, quick darting, stitching, tearing, neuralgic, radiating, itching, tingling, prickling, formication, crawling, numbness, insensibility, quivering, numbness with quivering, tingling with quivering, trembling, draft of air as if fanned, cold wind, draft, pain appearing suddenly and disappearing gradually.

Sensations As If

Sensation of falling; as if she stared at everything; as if intoxicated; as if occiput was enlarged; as of a tight band across forehead; as if front half of brain would come through forehead; as if skin was drawn tight across forehead; as if a tube went through head; as of three points of tension in head, as if large cords were drawn to each; as if head had been struck; as of a cool wind blowing in eyes; as if parchment was drawn over ear; as from a worm, about an inch long, crawling in right, and as if it commenced boring in the anterior wall of the auditory canal; as of a centipede crawling in left nostril; in throat as if she had taken a severe cold; as of a paper of pins in pit of stomach that seemed to force themselves through flesh; beating as of a pulse in abdomen; sensation in liver as if caused by icy cold insects with claws; creeping chills in region of right kidney; as of bubbles, sensation of three in the right kidney, moving like bubbles in water causing faintness; as if caused by icy cold insects with claws; after urinating, a feeling as if something more remained in urethra; as if a sac was distended in left ovary and if pressed would burst; as if she must press ovary; cutting as if with knives in pelvic region; bronchial tubes appear to be very much enlarged and cough spasm causes a flabby feeling as if the lining membrane was a loose fold of tissue; as if lung was drawn up in hand and let loose; as of a lump in larynx; as if lining of larynx and pharynx was torn off; chest as if painfully contracted, filled with burning air, which dilated in puffs in all directions; as if thorax was too full; as if heart was swollen; as of water dropping out of a bottle in lumbar region; pains in shoulders as if bones would be crushed; pricking in left little finger as if asleep; as if a boil was coming on back of hand; as of creeping things throughout body; as if blood was boiling hot in veins; sore all over as if bruised; as if all bones were out of joint; as if she would have nightmare.

Modalities

Aggravation < : Daytime, from sunrise to sunset; early morning (3 am to 4 am); damp, cold; in closed room; after urinating; touch, even slight; when thinking of ailment; from heat; from covering; warmth of bed; in the sun; inland and mountains; before storms; during thunderstorm; wind; from least movement; stretching out; leaning head forward; motion, beginning of and during; sweets; salt bathing.

Amelioration >: At the seashore; dampness; damp weather; lying on face or stomach; knee-elbow position; bending backward; motion, continued; fresh air; being fanned; hard rubbing; clutching anything; uncovering; sunset; weeping.