Anacardium Orientale 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.
“Marking Nut. (Anacardiaceae.) Sudden loss of memory ; everything seems to be in a dream; patient is greatly troubles about his forgetfulness; confused, unfit for business. Disposed to be malacious, seems bent on wickedness. Irresistible desire to curse and swear (Lac. c., Lil., Nit. ac. - wants to pray continually…”
- Allen TF — The raw proving record — symptoms as the provers reported them, unedited.
“Semecarpus Anacardium, Linn. Nat. order , Anacardiaceæ. Common name , Marking nut. Preparation , Trituration of the layer of the nut between the shell and the kernel. Authorities. [Nos. 1 to 8 , from (Archiv. and) Hahnemann Chr Kr. (provings made with powdered nut and tincture).] Illusions of the fancy; he imagines he…”
- Boericke — The quick clinical read — keynotes, modalities and the conditions it is actually prescribed in.
“Marking Nut (ANACARDIUM) The Anacardium patient is found mostly among the neurasthenics; such have a type of nervous dyspepsia, relieved by food; impaired memory , depression, and irritability; diminution of senses (smell, sight, hearing). Syphilitic patients often suffer with these conditions. Intermittency of…”
- Boger (GA) — Which general headings this remedy belongs under — the analytical scaffolding.
“CONSTRICTION, tight band, gathered together, squeezing, etc. DUALITY, in pieces, separated, as if some one else, etc. EATING, Amel. EATING, long after, Agg. LIE DOWN, must LYING, ON SIDE, AGG. MEMORY MENTAL EXERTION, Agg. MUSCLES PLUG, nail, wedge, clavus, etc. TENDO ACHILLES 4 P.M.”
- Clarke — The widest entry — sources, provings, clinical uses, relationships and antidotes in one place.
“Semecarpus anacardium. Marking Nut. N. O. Anacardiaceæ. (East Indies.) Preparation: layer of nut between shell and kernel triturated. Alcoholism / Apoplexy / Brain-fag / Constipation / Cough / Debility / Dysmenorrhœa / Dyspepsia / Eczema / Elephantiasis / Examination funk / Hæmorrhoids / Headache / Heart, affections…”
- Hering — Graded symptoms, each weighted by how often provers and practice confirmed it.
“Marking Nut. Anacardiaceæ. The nut of Semecarpus Anacardium ; not identical with Avicennia tomentosa, as Hahnemann erroneously stated. It is imported from the East Indies, and if Schwabe, in his Pharmacopœia, recommends the soft resin of the seed for trituration, it is only to avoid too old and dry ones. The common…”
- Kent — The mental and general picture — who the patient is, before what the remedy cures.
“This remedy is full of strange notions and ideas. The mind appears to be feeble; almost, if not complete imbecility; seems as if in a dream; everything is strange; slow to comprehend. Marked irritability; disturbed by everything; cursing. Weak memory. Forgetful of things in his mind but a moment ago. All his senses…”
- Lippe (KN) — Only the symptoms Lippe considered reliable enough to prescribe on.
“Maliciousness. Swearing. Loss of memory. Crampish pains in the muscles. Contraction of the joints. Sensation of a band or hoop around the parts. Pain in different parts, as if a plug and entered. Trembling debility and paralytic weakness. Diminution of the senses (smell, sight and hearing). Liability to catch cold…”
- Lippe (MM) — The strict Hahnemannian reading — the symptom picture without clinical interpretation.
“Want of moral feeling. Contradiction between reason and will; he feels as if he had two wills, one commanding him to do what the other tells him not to do. Wickedness and cruelty. Irresistible desire to curse and swear. Loss of memory. Pressing pain in the temple, as from a nail; worse after eating, in the cold air…”
- Lippe (Red) — Keynotes with the most-trusted ones marked as red-line symptoms.
“Common name: marking nut. Excessive anger at slight offence, breaking out in personal violence (Nux-V., Sulph.). (R.). Fixed ideas; that he is double; that there is no reality in anything, all appears like a dream; and that the mind and body are separated (G.). MALICIOUSNESS (Ars., Bell., Canth., Cupr., Hep., Hyos…”
- Nash — The comparisons — the remedy set beside the ones it is most often confused with.
“Pain in stomach when it is empty, > by eating. Frequent ineffectual desire for stool, from insufficiency or paralytic state of rectum; with sense of lump or plug in anus; with the effort the desire vanishes. Loss of memory; irresistible desire to curse and swear; feels as if he had two wills, one commanding, the other…”
