Helleborus niger
By Adolph von Lippe — Text Book of Materia Medica
Mind and Disposition
Silent melancholy, with great anguish, much moaning, thoughtless staring and inability to think.
Home-sickness.
Sadness, despair of his life.
Dulness of the internal senses.
Diminished power of the mind over the body; the muscles do not act properly, if the will is not strongly fixed upon their action; if he talks he lets fall what he holds in the hand.
Weakness of memory.
Head
Giddiness on stooping.
Stupefying headache, with coryza (4 to 8 P.M.); worse from stooping, relieved at rest and in the open air.
Pressing headache from outward to inward, with stupefaction and heaviness of the head; worse on moving the head, from exertion; better in the open air and from distraction of the mind.
Inflammation of the brain, with stupefaction; heat and heaviness of the head; boring with the head in the pillows, with chilliness of the whole body; coldness of the fingers; worse from thinking of the pain.
Hydrocephalus with stupefaction; stupor; or boring with the head in the pillows; coldness of the body; aggravated from stooping.
Sensation of soreness of the head, as if bruised, especially in the back part of the head, with stupefaction worse on stooping.
Burning heat in the head, with paleness of the face.
Boring with the head in the pillows, with the sensation as if the scalp on the occiput were pulled down tight.
Falling off of the hair (on the head and on the whole body), with pricking pain on the scalp, especially on the occiput, with pale, dropsical swelling of the face and body.
Humid scurf on the scalp.
Eyes
Inclination to stare.
Photophobia without inflammation.
Sensation as if the eyelids were pressed down.
Pupils dilated.
Twitching in the levatores palpebrarum and the cheeks, with heat in the face.
Face
Pale-yellowish color of the face.
Œdematous pale swelling of the face.
The forehead is full of wrinkles.
Soreness of the corners of the mouth, with continuous flow of saliva.
White blisters (vesicles) on the swollen lips.
The upper lip is cracked.
Dull pain in the right malar bone.
Mouth and Throat
In the evening and at night pricking toothache in the molars; can bear neither cold nor heat.
Vesicles in the mouth and on the tongue.
Ptyalism, with soreness of the corners of the mouth.
Aphthæ in the mouth.
Swelling of the tongue.
Pimple on the tip of the tongue, painfully stinging when touched.
Insensibility and numbness of the tongue.
Dry, white tongue (in the morning).
Stomach and Abdomen
Nausea, sensation of hunger with repugnance to food.
Vomiting of green-blackish substances, with colic.
Fulness and distention of the pit of the stomach.
Burning and scraping in the stomach.
Painfulness of the stomach when coughing and walking.
Gurgling in the bowels, as if full of water.
Distention of the abdomen (Ascites).
Sensation of coldness in the abdomen.
Stool and Anus
White, jelly-like stool, with tenesmus.
Frequent watery stools.
Stools consisting of pure, tenacious, white mucus.
After an evacuation, burning hot smarting at the anus.
Urinary Organs
Frequent desire to urinate, emitting but a small quantity.
Dark urine, feeble stream.
A large quantity of pale, watery urine is emitted.
Sexual Organs
Suppressed sexual desire.
Respiratory Organs
Suffocative attacks, as from constriction of the lungs.
Constriction of the throat, nose, chest.
Hydrothorax.
Dry cough while smoking tobacco.
Back
Stiffness of the cervical muscles as far as the occiput.
Swelling of the cervical glands.
Extremities
Upper. Boring-sticking pain in the wrist and finger-joints.
Humid, painless vesicles between the fingers.
Ulceration around the nails.
Lower. Stiffness of the hip and knee-joints.
Pricking pain in the left hip.
Boring-stinging in the knee and foot-joints.
Humid, painless vesicles between the toes.
Sleep
Stupor, sopor.
Lies in a stupor, with the eyes half open and with the pupils turned upward.
Confused, anxious dreams, which cannot be recollected.
Generalities
Sudden relaxation of all the muscles.
The muscles refuse their services, if not governed by strong attention and will.
Convulsive twitching of the muscles (during sleep).
Stinging-boring pains in the coverings of the bones; worse in the cool air.
Fever
Pulse, small, slow, almost imperceptible.
Chilliness predominates during the day, as long as he remains out of bed, with heat of the face and drowsiness.
Chill with goose-flesh and pain in the joints.
The chill begins and spreads from the arms.
After lying down in bed, the heat comes on immediately, generally accompanied by perspiration.
In the evening, in bed, burning heat over the whole body, with internal chilliness and aversion to drink; when attempting to drink, very little can be taken at a time.
Heat followed by chill, with colic.
Perspiration while in bed with the heat; worse towards morning.
Cold, at times clammy perspiration.
Skin
Pale color of the skin.
Sudden dropsical swelling of the skin; Anasarca.
The hair and nails fall off.
Desquamation all over the body.
Conditions
The pains (pricking, tearing, pressing) run across the parts.
Aggravation, in the evening (4 P.M.), in the cold air, and from bodily exertion.
Amelioration in the warm air.
In the open air he feels better, with the sensation as if he had been sick for a long time.