Allium Cepa appears in 12 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.
“Onion (Liliaccae) Acute catarrhal inflammation of mucous membranes, with increased secretion. Catarrhal dull headache, with coryza; in open air; moving about. Neuralgic pains like a long thread; in face, head, neck, chest. Traumatic chronic neuritis; neuralgia of stump after amputation; burning and stinging pains…”
- Allen TF — The raw proving record — symptoms as the provers reported them, unedited.
“Allium cepa, Willd. Nat. order , Liliaceæ. Common names , Onion; (Germ.) Zwiebel; (Fr.) Oignon. Preparation , Tincture from the red onion. Authorities. To mandragora we may join the excessive use of garlic, onions, and leeks, because all physicians consider them very injurious, as occasioning deeply corrupted…”
- Boericke — The quick clinical read — keynotes, modalities and the conditions it is actually prescribed in.
“Red Onion Catarrhal headache, mostly in forehead; worse in warm room towards evening. Thread-like pains in face. Headache ceases during menses; returns when flow disappears. Red. Much burning and smarting lachrymation. Sensitive to light . Eyes suffused and watery; profuse, bland lachrymation, better in open air…”
- Boger (GA) — Which general headings this remedy belongs under — the analytical scaffolding.
“ACRIDITY, excoriations, etc. FINE PAINS, needle, splinter, thread or hair-like, etc. LARYNX AND TRACHEA SEASON, Spring SIDE, left to right”
- Clarke — The widest entry — sources, provings, clinical uses, relationships and antidotes in one place.
“Cepa. Common Red Onion. N. O. Liliaceæ. Tincture of the onion; or of whole fresh plant gathered from July to August. Anus, fissure of / Ascites / Catarrh / Cold / Coryza / Cough / Diarrhœa / Facial paralysis / Feet, easily galled / Hay-fever / Hernia / Influenza / Laryngitis / Panaritium / Pneumonia / Trauma / Whitlow…”
- Hering — Graded symptoms, each weighted by how often provers and practice confirmed it.
“Common Onion. Liliaceæ. In use as a medicine since time immemorial. Among the Egyptians it was hung up in noxious corners, carried about with one, taken for the consequences of bad water, used for the sting of insects, animal poisons, even the bite of the mad dog ; it was applied as an irritant and to mature…”
- Kent — The mental and general picture — who the patient is, before what the remedy cures.
“General features : Allium cepa is used principally for " colds." There are various phases of these " colds," in the nose, in the throat, in the larynx, in the bronchial tubes. The patient and all the phases of his " cold," his coryza, his Ia laryngitis, his cough, all his complaints, are aggravated by warmth, are…”
- Lippe (KN) — Only the symptoms Lippe considered reliable enough to prescribe on.
“Pulse full and accelerated. Heat, with rumbling in the abdomen, coryza and thirst. Soreness of the lower extremities. Breathing oppressed from pressure in the middle of the chest, worse in the evening. Cough when inhaling cold air. Pressure and other pains in the region of the bladder. Sensation of weakness in the…”
- Lippe (MM) — The strict Hahnemannian reading — the symptom picture without clinical interpretation.
“Melancholy. Fear that the pains would become unbearable. Dulness. Dull head-ache, with coryza; worse in the evening; better in the open air; but aggravated when returning to a warm room. Flow of (mild) tears. Redness of the eyes, with itching, burning and stinging, with inclination to rub them. Swelling around the…”
- Lippe (Red) — Keynotes with the most-trusted ones marked as red-line symptoms.
“Common name: red onion. HEADACHE, BETTER IN THE OPEN AIR (Apis, Ars., Bell., Coff., Ferr., Lyc., Puls.); GETS WORSE ON RETURNING TO A WARM ROOM (Apis, Carb-V., Kali-S., Phos., Plat., Puls., Seneg., Sep., Sulph.) (G.). HEADACHE, WITH CORYZA (Calc-S., Dulc., Euphr., Gels., Graph., Hep.) (C.). Headache ceases during…”
- Nash — The comparisons — the remedy set beside the ones it is most often confused with.
“Coryza with frequent sneezing and profuse acrid discharge, corroding upper lip and nose. Lachrymation also profuse but bland. (Euph. reverse.) Cold extends to the bronchi, with profuse secretion of mucus; coughing and much rattling (Chelidon.). Modalities: in open air (the coryza). Anyone who has cut up raw onions for…”
