Sepia

Cuttle Fish. (Mollusca.)

Adapted to persons of dark hair, rigid fibre, but mild and easy disposition (Puls.). Diseases of women: especially those occurring during pregnancy, child- bed and lactation; or diseases attended with sudden prostration and sinking faintness (Murex, Nux m.); "the washerwoman's remedy." complaints that are brought on by or aggravated after laundry work. Pains extend from other parts to the back (rev. of Sab.); are attended with shuddering (with chilliness, Puls.). Particularly sensitive to cold air, "chills so easily;" lack of vital heat, especially in chronic diseases (in acute diseases, Led.). Sensation of a ball in inner parts; during menses, pregnancy, lactation; with constipation, diarrhoea, haemorrhoids, leucorrhoea and all uterine affections. Faints easily: after getting wet; from extremes of heat or cold; riding in a carriage; while kneeling at church. Coldness of the vertex with headache (Ver. - heat of vertex, Calc., Graph., Sulph.). Anxiety: with fear, flushes of heat over face and head; about real or imaginary friends; with uterine troubles. Great sadness and weeping . Dread of being alone; of men; of meeting friends; with uterine troubles. Indifferent : even to one's family; to one's occupation (Fl. ac., Phos. ac.); to those whom she loves best . Greedy, miserly (Lyc.). Indolent: does not want to do anything, either work or play; even an exertion to think. Headache: in terrific shocks; at menstrual nisus, with scanty flow ; in delicate, sensitive, hysterical women; pressing, bursting < motion, stooping, mental labor, > by external pressure, continued hard motion. Great falling of the hair , after chronic headaches or at the climacteric. Yellowness: of the face; conjunctiva; yellow spots on the chest; a yellow saddle across the upper part of the cheeks and nose ; a "tell tale face" of uterine ailments. All the coverings of the neck felt too tight and were constantly loosened (Lach.). Herpes circinatus in isolated spots on upper part of body (in intersecting rings over whole body, Tell.). Pot-belliness of mothers (of children, Sulph.). Painful sensation of emptiness , "all-gone" feeling in the epigastrium, relieved by eating (Chel., Mur., Phos.). Tongue foul , but becomes clear at each menstrual nisus, returns when flow ceases; swelling and cracking of lower lip. Constipation: during pregnancy (Alum.); stool hard, knotty, in balls, insufficient, difficult; pain in rectum during and long after stool (Nit. ac., Sulph.); sense of weight or ball in anus, not > by stool. Urine: deposits in a reddish clay-colored sediment which adheres to the vessel as if it has been burned on; fetid, so offensive must be removed from the room (horribly offensive after standing, Indium). Enuresis: bed is wet almost as soon as the child goes to sleep (Kreos.); always during the first sleep . Gleet: painless, yellowish, staining linen; meatus glued together in morning; obstinate, of long standing (Kali iod.); sexual organs, weak and exhausted. Violent stitches upward in the vagina; lancinating pains from the uterus to the umbilicus. Prolapsus of uterus and vagina; pressure and bearing down as if everything would protrude from pelvis ; must cross limbs tightly to "sit close" to prevent it; with oppression of breathing (compare Agar., Bell., Lil., Murex, Sanic.). Irregular menses of nearly every form - early, late, scanty, profuse, amenorrhoea or menorrhagia - when associated with the above named symptoms. Morning sickness of pregnancy: the sight or thought of food sickens (Nux); the smell of cooking food nauseates (Ars., Coch.). Dyspnoea: < sitting, after sleep, in room, > dancing or walking rapidly. Erythism; flushes of heat from least motion; with anxiety and faintness; followed by perspiration over whole body; climacteric (Lach., Sang., Sulph., Tub.); ascends , from pelvic organs. Itching of skin; of various parts; of external genitalia; is > scratching; and is apt to change to burning (Sulph.).

Relations . - Complementary: Natrum mur. Inimical: to, Lach., should not be used before or after; to, Puls, with which it should never be alternated. Similar: to, Lach., Sang., Ustil., in climacteric irregularities of the circulation. Frequently indicated after: Sil., Sulph. A single dose often acts curatively for many weeks.

Aggravation . - In afternoon or evening; from cold air or dry east wind; sexual excesses; at rest; sultry moist weather; before a thunderstorm (Psor.).

Amelioration . - Warmth of bed, hot applications; violent exercise. Many symptoms, especially those of head, heart and pelvis, are both < and > by rest and exercise. It antidotes mental effects of overuse of tabacco, in patients of sedentary habits who suffer from over-mental exertion.