Sinapis Nigra
By Constantine Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica
Black Mustard. Cruciferæ.
Provings (Sinapis Nigra et Alba) by Butler, N. Am. Jour. of Hom., 1872, p. 541 ; some symptoms by Cattel, Brit. J. of Hom., vol. 11, p. 524.
CLINICAL AUTHORITIES. (Sinapis Nigra et Alba)
- Coryza, Hay fever , Butler, Med. Adv., vol. 21, p. 353 ; Sore mouth , Ellis, Hah. Mo., vol. 24, p. 61, from Hom. Jour. Obstet., Nov., 1888 ; Cough , Walser, A. J. H. M. M., vol. 4, p. 134 ; Variola , Rockwith, Med. Union, vol. 1, p. 59.
NOTE :- Found of use in Philadelphia with potassium cyanide as a means of prevention in the epidemic of smallpox, 1870-71, by Hering, Korndoerfer, Farrington, Knerr, and others.
MIND [1]
Irritable disposition.
Cross, dissatisfied without cause ; must guard himself constantly or be uncivil and pettish.
From fright during coition, impotence.
Cannot keep his attention fixed.
From least mental exertion : sweat.
SENSORIUM [2]
Vertigo of old people.
Violent attacks of vertigo, with hard hearing after eating heavy food ; mostly after fat.
INNER HEAD [3]
Dull pain across forehead commencing at outer angle of each eye, more severe around edges of orbits and across bridge of nose.
Dull, dragging-down sensation in anterior part of head, not amounting to decided pain.
Heavy headache in top and sides of head.
Dull headache, with qualmishness about pit of stomach.
Dull headache, replaced (at 11 A. M.) by burning prickling in face, moderately full pulse, dull feeling in top of head, as if empty.
Headache does not interfere with mental exertion, in fact, is forgotten during it ; < when attention is drawn to it ; in warm room ; better in open air, eating and lying down.
Pains are < on one side, right ; sometimes on the other, left ; mostly anterior part of head and less often vertex is involved (no prover had it in occiput).
Headache as if she had taken cold, with tired feeling all over.
Dull, heavy, drawing or pressing pain in head.
Apoplexy.
OUTER HEAD [4]
Sensation as if scalp were adherent to bones.
Forehead hot and dry.
SIGHT AND EYES [5]
When pressing on eyeballs, sensation as of pins sticking.
Eyeballs as if pressed on from above, with tired feeling of eyes and some dull pain in them, > closing eyes and by eating.
Sudden feeling of warmth, with stitching in left eye ; it fills with tears, which relieve.
Sticking or smarting in left eye.
Eyes sore, weak.
Eyes feel tired.
Pain over eye, sometimes right, sometimes left ; sometimes passing from outer angle to root of nose.
Eyes smart with profuse lachrymation.
Hard work to keep eyes open.
HEARING AND EARS [6]
Hard hearing, with vertigo.
SMELL AND NOSE [7]
Dryness of anterior nares.
Nostrils dry ; left < with discharge of some dried mucus ; tender to pressure.
Dryness of posterior nares and pharynx, > swallowing and clearing throat of small white lumps of tenacious mucus with slight hacking.
Scanty acrid discharge from anterior nares, makes skin red.
Left nostril stopped up all day ; scanty acrid discharge from nose.
Mucous membrane of nose dry and hot ; no discharge ; symptoms < in afternoon and evening ; either nostril may be affected alone or alternately with the other. θ Hay fever.
Dryness in posterior nares and pharynx > by swallowing and attempts to clear throat, which brings up small lumps of white tenacious mucus with slight hawking.
Much discharge of mucus from posterior nares, it accumulates there and requires an effort to dislodge ; tasteless, cold and in quite large, tenacious white masses.
Accumulation of mucus, usually white, at times yellow, drops from posterior nares, causing nausea and even vomiting.
Scurvy, with copious and frequent nosebleed.
Profuse, thin, watery discharge from anterior nares, excoriating and acrid ; wings of nose red and sore ; draws considerable mucus into throat from posterior nares ; voice thick, nasal ; frequent short, hacking cough, painless, < during day ; > by lying down. θ Acute coryza.
A man of nervous temperament was caught in a thundershower and wet through ; nasal passages feel stopped up while a thin acrid mucus is discharged profusely from anterior nares ; wings of nose red ; eyelids smart and itch.
For some years subject to severe colds ; severe acrid nasal discharge with much lachrymation and irritation of eyelids ; sneezes frequently, with coryza ; hacking cough harder and more paroxysmal, lasts for weeks ; nose feels stopped up, especially at bridge, although he has considerable nasal discharge which irritates and reddens skin ; voice very nasal ; partial loss of taste and smell.
Feeling as if nostrils were stopped up although they discharge profusely a thin mucus, which excoriates nose and lip ; itching and smarting of eyelids ; post-nasal discharge ; continually clearing throat ; infrequent hacking cough ; dull frontal headache ; voice nasal. θ Acute coryza.
Hay fever ; eyes suffused, itched and smarted ; nose swollen and discharging continually a thin acrid mucus ; oppression of chest, as if movement were impeded all around her chest, not a contraction, but as if something heavy oppressed her in all sides from her neck to diaphragm ; < at night lying down.
Subject to hay fever for eight years ; comes on July 28th of each year and stays until after first hard frost ; two weeks after commencement of attack, smarting and itching of eyelids, < toward inner canthi ; margins of lids reddened ; eyes filled with tears ; nasal discharge profuse, watery and excoriating ; much sneezing, < in morning for a while, and on lying down at night, but continuing more or less all day long ; itching, burning, tickling in nostrils high up ; frequent hacking cough during day, but none at night ; dull frontal headache ; mentally irritable.
Has been for two weeks suffering from her annual attack of hay fever, which came on, as usual, about middle of August ; nose swollen, alæ nasi excoriated, while lips were but little reddened ; eyes watery, must keep wiping them ; eyelids itch ; voice nasal ; nose feels stopped up at bridge and posterior nares ; post-nasal discharge, which she draws down in considerable quantities and expectorates ; it is thick, of brownish color and tastes cold ; breathing much oppressed all the time, but < at night ; every night she has attacks of asthmatic breathing, which last an hour or more ; during attacks must sit upright and has a dull pain from upper part of chest through to shoulder blades, and dull, hard aching in temples ; can never lie with head low because it brings on attacks ; attacks more frequent in damp weather, and < on lying down and moving, > by sitting up in bed with shoulders drawn forward (round-shouldered position) and by perfect quiet.
Mrs. D., æt. 71, small, dark, dried-up old woman, bronchial asthma ; sat in one chair, leaning her head upon back of another ; breathing labored and noisy, wheezing and rattling of mucus in chest plainly audible all over room ; anxious for death that she might be relieved ; intensely despondent and sure that she would not recover ; acrid nasal discharge reddened skin about nose and slightly on upper lip.
UPPER FACE [8]
Sensation as if cheeks were bulged out by a bubble of air just below malar bone.
LOWER FACE [9]
Lips dry, skin as if stiff ; smarting of lips ; red around mouth.
TEETH AND GUMS [10]
Teeth, especially such as have been filled, sensitive to warm drinks or cold air.
Gums sore, tender to touch, can hardly eat hard food.
Swollen, bleeding gums.
Convulsions during dentition.
TASTE, SPEECH, TONGUE [11]
Tingling, scalded feeling of tongue.
Tongue can hardly bear weight of teeth ; raw, sore.
Tongue feels dry, sticky, sense of blisters on tip.
Tongue dirty white in middle, edges and tip hot.
Fissure down median line.
Black tongue.
INNER MOUTH [12]
Breath offensive, smelling like onions Mouth dry.
Burning in mouth to stomach ; with nausea, > by eating.
Saliva increased ; alkaline.
Sore mouth, accompanied by hot, burning, sour eructations ; burning started in stomach and would come up throat to mouth, with sour eructations ; mouth very sore all over, with little white points surrounded by red mucous membrane.
Ulcers in mouth, especially on tongue, with violent burning pain, where whole buccal cavity is so sensitive that even blandest food or drink is unbearable.
A woman eight months pregnant, constantly suffering with burning in stomach extending up œsophagus to throat and mouth ; mouth full of canker sores ; < from food or drink.
PALATE AND THROAT [13]
Left side sore, felt only on swallowing saliva and forcing mucus from choanæ ; very slight when eating or drinking.
Throat behind uvula injected light red.
Sore throat right to left.
Angina œdematosa ; pale swelling with much phlegm.
APPETITE, THIRST. DESIRES, AVERSIONS [14]
Appetite good.
Averse to sweets.
Toward evening, thirst.
EATING AND DRINKING [15]
While eating : headache > ; nausea > ; pain in eyes >.
After eating : vertigo < ; desire for stool ; fulness after a little, must loosen garments.
After eating or drinking : fulness and heaviness ; distension, clothing must be loosened.
HICCOUGH, BELCHING, NAUSEA AND VOMITING [16]
Obstinate hiccough.
Heartburn.
Frequent belching : tasteless, or tasting like horseradish or of ingesta ; of hot air which increases heartburn.
Copious vomiting, much straining ; it relieves nausea.
SCROBICULUM AND STOMACH [17]
Sensation of a load in stomach.
Burning, later sharp and intermittent with faintness, > bending forward in sitting posture.
Burning in stomach and umbilical region.
Ulceration of stomach and intestines.
Chronic catarrh of stomach.
HYPOCHONDRIA [18]
Pressure in epigastric region.
Dull pain across epigastrium on bending forward, > sitting erect.
Dull pain in left hypochondrium.
ABDOMEN AND LOINS [19]
Pains < about navel ; sometimes in lumbar region.
Pains from navel down to left inguina.
Rumbling of flatus.
Heavy, dull pain below navel as from a weight.
Continuous dull pain in right groin, > by pressure.
Sharp pain in right groin.
Dull, heavy pain in left groin, at times sharp and sticking.
Gland in left groin swollen, painful.
Chronic catarrh of intestines.
STOOLS AND RECTUM [20]
Stool once in three days.
Stool large in amount and rather hard, with no difficulty in passing ; or loose, scanty, expelled with difficulty.
Frequent desire without any passage, passage small, in balls or lumps, at first large then tapering.
After stool feeling as if all had not passed ; sharp smarting pain in lower rectum and anus.
Pappy, dark brown stool, with burning in anus ; much undigested food with mucus and dead worms.
(OBS :) Cholera, with cyanosis.
URINARY ORGANS [21]
Urine frequent but normal in quantity ; of a pale straw-color ; sometimes increased ; sp. gr. 1025.
Large quantities of urine are passed during night, passage preceded by a violent erection.
After urinating : sensation as if more would be voided and a little later dribbling of a few drops.
Urine : darker ; golden, acid ; clear yellow ; a cloud suspended in it with little granules like frog spawn.
Catarrh of bladder.
MALE SEXUAL ORGANS [22]
Sexual desire excited.
Violent erections during the day with lascivious thoughts.
Obstinate and violent erections at night, usually with lascivious dreams and even emission of semen.
Impotence, from a fright during coition.
FEMALE SEXUAL ORGANS [23]
Menses appeared in a few hours, long before period.
Amenorrhœa and chlorosis.
Cessation of catamenia.
VOICE AND LARYNX. TRACHEA AND BRONCHIA [25]
Hoarseness ; toward night and in evening, with frequent attempts to clear throat.
Rough scraping sensation in throat extending to trachea, with a continual desire to clear throat and a slight hacking cough, < in evening.
Continual desire to clear throat, with difficult dislodgment of small lumps of tenacious white mucus, freer in forenoon, scanty at night.
RESPIRATION [26]
Asphyxia.
Pituitous asthma.
COUGH [27]
Short, hacking cough in evening, leaves on retiring ; usually dry, but sometimes sputa in small tenacious lumps of white mucus ; excited by laughing ; < in cold air ; > on lying down and while eating ; sensation of an obstruction low down in trachea.
Neurosis of nerves of respiration since two years ; loud coughing spells, lasting about ten minutes at a time ; loud barking respirations could be heard at a distance.
INNER CHEST AND LUNGS [28]
Pain in right side as if heart were there and one could feel its beating.
Sharp, severe pain in left side of chest in cardiac region, passing off soon.
Wandering pains in chest.
Catarrh of lungs.
HEART, PULSE AND CIRCULATION [29]
Uneasiness and occasional dull pains in region of heart, unaltered by pressure, deep inspiration or motion.
Occasional sensation of oppression and pricking in region of heart, soon passing off.
Quite persistent dull, circumscribed pain in heart toward apex.
Pains about heart recur daily about 10 A. M., and from 4 to 6 P. M., lasting a short time only, sometimes quite persistent, with a feeling of dread and oppression.
Pulse grows less frequent and later rises until it is a little too frequent.
NECK AND BACK [31]
Dull but quite severe pulsating pain under lower angle of left scapula.
Cannot sleep on account of pain in small of back and hips ; > by motion.
Pain in small of back, becoming intolerable near bedtime.
UPPER LIMBS [32]
Drawing pain at insertion of right biceps brachialis on flexing and extending arm.
Occasional dull pains in left shoulder joint.
LOWER LIMBS [33]
Weakness of muscles of calves.
Cramps in calves.
Dull, heavy aching in legs, calves and ankles.
Œdema of feet.
Ulcers on legs.
REST. POSITION. MOTION [35]
Rest : oppressed breathing ; nausea >.
Lying down : headache > ; hay fever < ; oppressed breathing > ; short, hacking cough <.
Sitting : burning in stomach > ; erect, pain across epigastrium > ; stitches in anus.
Sitting up in bed with shoulders drawn forward : hay fever and oppressed breathing >.
Must sit upright : oppressed breathing.
Bending forward : pain across epigastrium.
Movement : hay fever < ; oppressed breathing < ; nausea < ; pain in back and hips > ; sweats easily.
Flexing and extending arm : pain at biceps.
NERVES [36]
Weak, languid, with desire to sleep during day.
Chorea.
SLEEP [37]
Sleepless at night, but no inconvenience from loss of sleep.
Sleepy during day, vivid or lascivious dreams.
Sleep after dinner with anxious dreams.
Dreams of the dead and of thieves.
TIME [38]
Forenoon : desire to clear throat >.
At 11 A. M. : headache replaced by prickling and burning in face.
Day : acute coryza < ; frequent hacking cough ; desire to sleep.
Evening : toward, thirst ; dark green stool ; small blackish stool ; hoarseness < ; short, hacking cough.
Night : hacking cough < ; oppressed breathing < ; large quantities of urine passed ; hoarseness ; desire to clear throat.
TEMPERATURE AND WEATHER [39]
In warm room : headache <.
Warm drinks : teeth sensitive to.
In open air : headache >.
Damp weather : attacks of oppressed breathing <.
After getting wet through : nose feels stopped while thin mucus is discharged.
Cold air : teeth sensitive ; short, hacking cough <.
FEVER [40]
Chilly all over, with cold hands and feet, after vomiting.
Heat through whole body, < down spine.
Sweat, with feeling of hot water in bloodvessels, disappearing when nausea comes on.
Sweat general : more on forehead and upper lip.
Sweats easily from least exertion, mental or physical.
Quartan ague and inflammatory fever.
Typhoid and putrid fevers ; delirious ; great prostration ; petechia.
Febris mucosa.
ATTACKS, PERIODICITY [41]
Daily : return of pains about heart about 10 A. M., and from 4 to 6 P. M.
Every evening : sudden headache while conversing.
Every night : attacks of asthma.
Middle of August : hay fever.
Since two years : neurosis of nerves of respiration lasting ten minutes.
For eight years : subject to hay fever ; comes on July 28th and lasts until after first hard frost.
LOCALITY AND DIRECTION [42]
Right : dull pain in groin ; sharp pain in groin ; pain in side as if heart were there ; drawing pain at insertion of biceps brachialis.
Left : nostril stopped ; pain in hypochondrium ; dull, heavy pain in groin ; gland in groin swollen, painful ; severe pain in side of chest ; pain under lower angle of scapula ; dull pain in shoulder joint.
SENSATIONS [43]
Head as if empty ; as if she had taken cold ; as if scalp were adherent to bones ; as of pins sticking in eyeballs ; eyeball as if pressed on from above ; as if nostrils were stopped up ; as if movements were impeded all around her chest ; as if something heavy oppressed her on all sides from neck to diaphragm ; as if cheeks were bulged out by a bubble of air below malar bone ; skin of lips as if stiff ; as of blisters on tip of tongue ; as of a load in stomach ; as of a hard body lying there ; as if more urine could be voided ; pain, as if heart were on r. side ; as of hot water in bloodvessels.
Pain : over eyes ; in eyes ; about navel ; from navel down to left inguina ; in stomach and epigastrium ; in right side ; about heart ; in small of back and hips.
Sharp pain : in right groin ; in lower rectum and anus ; in left side of chest.
Dull but quite severe pulsating pain : under angle of left scapula.
Stitching : in left eye.
Wandering pains : in chest.
Aching : in stomach.
Dull pain : across forehead ; in eyes ; upper part of chest through to shoulder blades ; across epigastrium ; in left hypochondrium ; in right groin ; in region of heart ; in heart toward apex ; in left shoulder joint.
Heavy pain : in top and sides of head ; below navel ; in left groin.
Dull, hard aching : in temples.
Dull, heavy aching : in legs ; in calves ; in ankles.
Dull, heavy, drawing or pressing pain : in head.
Drawing pain : at insertion of right biceps brachialis.
Dull feeling : in top of head.
Dull, dragging-down sensation : in anterior part of head.
Burning pressure : under ensiform cartilage ; in cardiac region.
Pressure : in stomach ; in epigastric region.
Tension : in abdomen.
Heaviness : in stomach.
Fulness : in stomach ; in abdomen.
Tired feeling : all over.
Violent burning pain : in ulcers in mouth.
Sticking : in left eye.
Burning : in nostrils ; in mouth to stomach ; from stomach up to throat and into mouth ; along œsophagus ; in stomach and umbilical region ; in anus.
Burning prickling : in face.
Smarting : in left eye ; of eyelids ; of lips.
Soreness : in eyes ; of tongue ; of mouth ; of throat.
Sudden feeling of warmth : in left eye.
Tingling scalded feeling : of tongue.
Pricking : in region of heart.
Rough, scraping sensation : in throat.
Tickling : in nostrils.
Dryness : of anterior nares ; of nostrils ; of posterior nares and pharynx ; of lips ; of tongue ; of mouth.
Itching : of eyelids ; in nostrils.
TISSUES [44]
Great muscular weakness.
Mucous secretion increased, tenacious, lumpy.
Anasarca after intermittents.
Rheumatalgia.
Pituitous dyspepsia.
Constipation from want of action of bowels.
Flatulency.
Disposition to nervous apoplexy.
Epilepsy.
Hypochondriasis.
Chlorosis.
Asthma.
Intermittent fever in swampy districts.
Autumnal intermittent, quartan septimana.
Pleurisy.
Smallpox.
TOUCH. PASSIVE MOTION. INJURIES [45]
Touch : gums sore ; pressure in stomach < ; abdomen tender.
Pressure : nostrils tender ; abdomen and epigastrium sensitive ; pain in right groin > ; pain in region of heart unaltered.
SKIN [46]
General ecchymosis.
Eczema chronica.
Smallpox ; to be given until sulphocyanides reappear in saliva.
Ulcers on legs.
STAGE OF LIFE, CONSTITUTION [47]
Vertigo of old people.
Convulsions of teething children.
Girl, æt. 13, tall, slender, dark complexion ; hay fever.
Mr. H. B., dark complexion, grey eyes ; acute coryza.
Mrs. K., æt. 28, small, dark complexion, slender figure, nervous temperament ; hay fever.
Lawyer, æt. 36, dark complexion, nervo bilious temperament ; coryza.
Mrs. D., widow, short, stout, florid, light complexion ; acute coryza.
Mr. A., light complexion, nervous temperament, after exposure ; coryza.
RELATIONS [48]
Antidoted by : Sapo sodæ for blisters from external application ; Nux vom. when abused as a condiment.