Aethusa cynapium

by Adolph von Lippe — Keynotes and Red Line Symptoms of the Materia Medica

Common names: fool's parsley; garden hemlock.

Useful in gastro-intestinal troubles, especially in gastro-intestinal catarrh and convulsions of children during dentition (C).

Dozing of child after vomiting spells (Ant-T.), or after the stool (Nux-M.) (C.).

Head feels bound up, or in a vise (Arg-N.) (Br.).

Regurgitation of food an hour or so after eating; copious greenish vomiting (A.).

VIOLENT VOMITING OF CURDLED MILK (Calc., Mag-C., Iris) AND CHEESY MATTER (C.).

Complete absence of thirst (Apis, Puls.; reverse of Ars.) (A.).

CANNOT BEAR MILK IN ANY FORM (A.).

INTOLERANCE OF MILK; IT IS FORCIBLY EJECTED ALMOST AS SOON AS SWALLOWED: THEN WEAKNESS CAUSES DROWSINESS; IN NURSING CHILDREN (C.).

Cholera infantum: after much purging and vomiting the child becomes cold, clammy, stupid, loses consciousness, and often lies with staring eyes and dilated pupils (G.).

HUNGRY AFTER VOMITING; EATS AND VOMITS AGAIN (N.).

The buccal cavity is usually very dry (G.).

Stool: undigested or partly so (Ant-C.); green, thin, bilious, with violent tenesmus before and after stool; bright yellow, or greenish. watery, slimy stools, with crying and drawing up of the feet in infants (G.).

An expression of great anxiety and pain, with a drawn condition and well-marked linea nasalia (A.)

Herpetic eruption on the tip of nose (Br.).

Deathly aspect; blue white pallor about lips (B).

Sweat with aversion to uncovering (B.).

Vertigo, during and after rising from a seat (L.).

Idiocy in children (Bar-C.); incapacity to think; confused (A.).

Awkwardness (Apis. Bov., Ign., Lach., Nat-M., Nux-V.) (F.).

Headache: violent pain, as if the brain were dashed to pieces, with a desire to have a band fastened tightly around head (L.).

Great weakness; children cannot stand; unable to hold up the head (Abrot.); prostration with sleepiness.

Epileptic spasms, with clenched thumbs, red face, eyes turned downwards, pupils fixed and dilated; foam at the mouth, jaws locked; pulse small, hard and quick (A.).

BRAIN FAG (Anac., Kali-P.) (Br.).

STUDENTS CANNOT CONCENTRATE THEIR MIND ON THEIR WORK AND PREPARE FOR AN EXAMINATION (Kali-P., Nux-V.) (Bl.).

INABILITY TO THINK OR TO FIX ATTENTION (Br.).

Profound exhaustion and lack of reaction (B.).

AGGRAVATION: After eating or drinking, after vomiting; after stool; after spasm; during dentition; from milk; and during hot weather.

AMELIORATION: From covering; from tightly bandaging the head; and during rest.

RELATIONSHIP: Similar to: Ant-C., Ars., Calc. Cic., Sanic., Sep. and Sulph.

Complementary: Calc-C.

Aethusa cynapium across the other classic books

Aethusa cynapium appears in 11 of the 13 classic books on Similia. Each was written to do a different job — here is what each adds on this remedy, with the opening of its entry.

Allen HC — The keynotes that separate this remedy from its nearest neighbours.
“Fool's Parsley (Umbelliferae.) Especially for children during dentition in hot summer weather; children who cannot bear milk . Great weakness; children cannot stand; unable to hold up the head (Abrot.); prostration with sleepiness. Idiocy in children; incapacity to think; confused. An expression of great anxiety and…”
Allen TF — The raw proving record — symptoms as the provers reported them, unedited.
“Æthusa cynapium, L. Nat. order , Umbelliferæ. Common names , Fool's Parsley; (Fr.) Petite Ciguë; (Germ.) Gleisse, Hundspetersilie; (Ital.) Cicuta minore. Preparation , Tincture, from the whole flowering plant. Authorities. Rage, [t]. Liable to transports of rage, 3, 5. Fury, [t]. Frenzy, [t], 2. Delirium, mania, 4…”
Boericke — The quick clinical read — keynotes, modalities and the conditions it is actually prescribed in.
“Fool's Parsley The characteristic symptoms relate mainly to the brain and nervous system, connected with gastro-intestinal disturbance. Anguish, crying, and expression of uneasiness and discontent, lead to this remedy most frequently in disease in children, during dentition, summer complaint, when, with the diarrhœa…”
Boger (GA) — Which general headings this remedy belongs under — the analytical scaffolding.
“COLLAPSE, sudden prostration, etc. DIGESTION affected EATING, long after, Agg. LUMPY EFFECTS, discharges, etc. RELAXATION (Comp. Inactive.) SEASON, Summer, hot weather SHATTERED or flying into pieces, explosions, etc., as if (Comp. Bursting.) SLEEPINESS STOMACH AND BOWELS THIRST, absent, especially during fever…”
Boger (Syn) — Generals and modalities in a short analytical portrait rather than a symptom list.
“BRAIN. Nerves. Digestion. Occiput. Neck. Glands. Liver. MILK. Hot weather. Dentition. Frequent eating. Over-exertion. Violent onset , profound exhaustion and lack of reaction, even speechless; as in cholera infantum, convulsions, etc. Can't stand or hold head up. Weak, nervous and prostrated; from over-work. Can't fix…”
Clarke — The widest entry — sources, provings, clinical uses, relationships and antidotes in one place.
“cynapium. Fool's Parsley. (Europe.) N. O. Umbelliferæ. Tincture of whole flowering plant. Brain-fag / Cholera infantum / Convulsions / Cough / Delirium / Diarrhœa / Dyspepsia / Ear, discharge from / Epilepsy / Excoriation / Eyes, affections of / Glands, affections of / Headache / Herpes / Hiccough / Idiocy / Infantile…”
Hering — Graded symptoms, each weighted by how often provers and practice confirmed it.
“Fool's Parsley. Umbelliferæ. Apt to be mistaken for parsley ; a narcotico-acrid poison on account of an adherent alkaloid substance called cynapine . The plant mentioned by Hahnemann in the Organon. Proved 1828 by Nenning, later by Hartlaub, Sr. ; edited with the toxic symptoms, Annalen, 4, 113, 1833. Observations on…”
Kent — The mental and general picture — who the patient is, before what the remedy cures.
“Generalities: Before Aethusa was known a certain class of cases of cholera infantum, and vomiting and diarrhea in children, all resulted fatally, because there was no remedy that looked like such serious cases. Death is stamped on the face from the beginning, and if there are any remedies in the book that save life…”
Lippe (MM) — The strict Hahnemannian reading — the symptom picture without clinical interpretation.
“Bad humor, irritability, especially in the afternoon, and in the open air. Anxiety. Delirium. Giddiness, with sleepiness. Stitches and pulsations in the head. Heaviness in the forehead. Heat rises to the head; the body becomes warmer; the face becomes red and the giddiness ceases. Sensation, as if both sides of the…”
Nash — The comparisons — the remedy set beside the ones it is most often confused with.
“Is one of our best remedies for vomiting in children. The milk comes up as soon as swallowed, by a great effort, after which the child becomes greatly relaxed and drowsy; or if the milk stays down longer it finally comes up in very sour curds, so large that it would seem almost impossible the child could have ejected…”

Aethusa cynapium in Kent's Repertory

Kent's Repertory lists Aethusa cynapium in 853 rubrics. These are the ones where it carries the highest grade — the symptoms Kent treated as most characteristic. Most of them sit in HEAD (139), MIND (84), EXTREMITIES (79), STOMACH (66), ABDOMEN (38).

STOMACH - INDIGESTION (Includes Complaints After Substances Not Otherwise Described) - milk,after
STOMACH - VOMITING - milk - curdled
STOMACH - VOMITING - milk
FACE - ERUPTIONS - herpes - nose
STOMACH - VOMITING - milk,after
RECTUM - CHOLERA - infantum
FACE - HIPPOCRATIC
RECTUM - DIARRHOEA - children,in
GENERALITIES - FOOD - milk - agg.
FACE - EXPRESSION, - anxious
FACE - DRAWN
STOMACH - VOMITING
SLEEP - DOZING - vomiting - after
STOMACH - PAIN - tearing - extending into oesophagus
FEMALE GENITALIA - MENSES - suppressed - bathing,from
MIND - CONCENTRATION - children,in
SLEEP - FALLING asleep - vomiting
STOMACH - PAIN - extending - oesophagus,to
EYE - TURNED - downward
HEAD - PULSATING,beating,throbbing - Forehead - walking,on

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