Theridion curassavicum

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(A small Spider found on orange trees in the West Indies.) Officinal Preparations. — Triturations.

Analogues. — Aconite, Belladonna, Calcarea, Graphites, Ignatia, Lycopodium, Spigelia, Sepia, Solanum.

Mental Sphere.

Despair; want of self-confidence.

Very joyous; he sings, although the head is internally hot. Aversion to professional labor.

Thinking is hard for him when it is of a comparative nature, but not when it is creative; he can easily write out a case or problem, but finds it difficult to select remedies; writes a treatise with facility, but finds it hard to classify and determine places in systems.

Head.

Much vertigo on every occasion, particularly on stooping. Vertigo and nausea increased to vomiting. Vertigo increased by every noise and sound.

• Attacks of vertigo and vomiting, with cold sweat, were

changed in such a manner by Theridion, that the nausea, always occasioned by closing the eyes, now appears on opening them, so that she must keep her eyes constantly closed. (Ilering.)

• Vertigo, together with blindness, caused by pain in the eyes.

• The headache is such that she cannot describe it, and cannot

make it clear to herself. Headache like a pressing band in the root of the nose, and over and around the ears.

• Pains principally in region of eyes, with starting in right

eye. (Neidhard.)

• Suddenly in the morning, pressing pain over left eye, aggravated by the slightest motion, talking; at the same time, sickness of stomach, with retching; better from drinking warm water; bowels open, with colic and flatulency, after which the head is worse.

• Throbbing over left eye, and across the forehead, also in a

slight degree in the right eye, with sick stomach, particularly on rising from a reclining position — like sea-sickness — the pain was at first aggravated from the medicine, but disappears entirely in one hour.

Headache is the beginning of every motion.

c Violent frontal headache, with throbbing extending into occiput.

0 The least motion of the head while lying increased headache and nausea.

• The walking of persons over the floor increases the headache. J The least noise aggravates the headache.

3 Headache of the worst kind, with nausea and vomiting, like sea-sickness, and with shaking chills, in several cases of women in the climacteric year. (JWeidhard.)

0 Sunstroke. (Hering.)

Eyes.

• Hard, heavy, dull pressure behind the eyeballs. ( Wells.) She lost her vision; everything seemed very far, as a veil was

drawn before her; it blazed and flickered before her eyes; she was obliged to lie down. Even when closing the eyes flickering continued. Thereupon she became very weak, and the head was much affected. °For many years, flickering before the eyes, in frequent paroxysms.

° Flickering before the eyes in hysterical subjects.

0 Sensitiveness to light; when she is in the light she experiences a "dark sparkling" before her eyes; everything appears double, and through this "fluttering" nausea is created, accompanied by cold hands. Long afterwards she dare not stoop.

0 On closing the eyes, nausea and vomiting. (Hering.)

"When her eyes closed (with weariness or sleep) the dizziness and nausea reappeared.

Ears.

• Rushing like a waterfall in both ear8.

0 The least noise aggravates the headache. 0 Itching behind the ears, so that she would like to scratch them off.

Face.

In the morning, on awakening, and sometimes at other times of the day, the lower jaw is immovable; but then opens, as it were, of its own account.

Froth before the mouth, with shaking chill.

Tetanus (with trismus).

Paroxysm of frequent, violent sneezing, and frequent necessity of blowing the nose; thereupon heaviness deep above in the nose.

Mouth.

Tongue seems as if burnt; it is so numb that she can tell

nothing properly. Mouth so impure, as if the teeth were full of slime, must

rinse the mouth frequently. Salty taste, and hawking up of salty mucus. Every sound penetrates the teeth.

Teeth, gums and palate affected by burning and tensive pain.

Appetite. Appetite for acidulous fruits.

Constant desire for food and drink, he knows not what. Much thirst; after drinking, sweat. Thirstless, with coldness.

Stomach.

• Nausea and vomiting, like sea-sickness, with headache.

(Neidhard.)

• Nausea called forth by the sparkling before the eyes.

• Nausea and vomiting when closing the eyes, and on motion

"feels thick in the head." (Ilering.) 0 A woman having had (in childbed) a violent spell of sickness at the end of the first week, and apparently recovered, was, in the third week, after washing clothes, suddenly attacked by nausea and vomiting; after it, very pale, and sick at the stomach as soon as she closed her eyes, with

vanishing of her thoughts. She recovered completely.

(From olfaction of the 30th.) D Nausea always increased when he closed his eyes. 0 Nausea increased when he gazed steadfastly at an object. Nausea on moving.

c Talking creates nausea and vomiting.

° Nausea created by fast riding in a carriage, in hepatic diseases. ° Sensitiveness of the region of the stomach and epigastrium. Hypochondria.

• Violent burning pain in hepatic region, which grows still more painful when being touched; during the pains, retching, vomiting, "finally bringing up bile.

° In abscess of the liver, Theridion relieves vertigo and nausea.

° Anthrax of sheep, with great tumefaction of hypogastrium and with great thirst. The adipose skin of the whole posterior belly suddenly swelled, became hot, tense, sooner or later it was red, blue, and finally gangrenous. As soon as it became red the appetite vanished. Immediately an appearance of swelling, great thirst, constantly increasing. If the sheep could reach a puddle of manure water, they would lie down in it as well as in the water-trough; sheep never do this when in health. Theridion cured all cases when the swelling had not turned blue. {JBraun.)

° A cow was tied to a stake, in the heat of summer, suddenly became restless, wild, and her whole body swelled visibly; and bellowing, she tried to break the chain; after a dose of Theridion, she recovered within one hour. (?!) (Ib.) Stool and Anus.

Scanty discharge, with much urging (tenesmus).

Diarrhoea, without colic, with the vomiting and vertigo at night.

° Bowels open twice, with colic and flatulency, after which the

headache is worse. The anus protrudes and is painful, especially while sitting,

without hemorrhoidal bunches, which he usually has

frequently; this passes off, returns again later, and the

hemorrhoidal tumors appear. (A spasmodic contraction of rectum and anus returns again.)

Urine.

Much urination with a young man disposed to it. Increased urination in an elderly woman not disposed to it.

Generative Organs. Male. — (Upon the glans little red spots.) Scrotum very much shrivelled.

The excessive sexual desire is immediately lessened, but the

usual morning erections appear. Sexual desire appears to have vanished, nor will erections take

place.

Strong erections in the morning, without desire. While at sleep after dinner, a seminal emission, very violent and profuse.

Women. — Menses omitted after the proving more than ten weeks, in a woman in the climacteric years, but who in the following year gave birth to a son.

0 Hysterical affections during puberty. (Hering.)

° Hysterical affections in climacteric years, (fb.)

° Affections in climacteric years; headache of the worst kind.

° From washing in third week after confinement, attack of fainting.

Chest.

Night cough.

Violent stitches up high in the chest, beneath the left shoulder, even up into the throat.

Heart.

• Anxiety about the heart. (Braun.) 0 Slow pulse, with vertigo. ( Wells.)

Upper Limbs. Stinging pain from elbow to shoulder.

Violent burning, itching on inner and upper part of left ring finger; the spot becomes very red; soon disappears. Lower Limbs. Itching and knots on the nates.

Swelling of the feet. (Secondary effect of the bite.) Pains in all bones as if broken; as if they were about to fall asunder.

Heaviness in all limbs before the chill

She is so weak that she cannot stand long; she becomes tremulous and perspires. 0 Weakness, that all the limbs tremble. Great inclination to be startled, with many provers. p Hysteria.

Sleep.

Sleepy after breakfast, before the chill; sleeps throughout the whole day.

Long and dreamful mid-day sleep; dreams of journeys in distant regions, and riding on horses; a person who scarcely ever sat upon a horse.

While sleeping he often bites into the point of his tongue, so that it is sore the following day; occurs frequently, even after the lapse of weeks.

• Paroxysm. — She awakes after a short sleep, at 11 o'clock; already in sleeping she felt the vertigo, and was awakened thereby; could not remain lying; tried to reach the chamber-pot, but fell down as if in a swoon ; cold sweat broke out; she strains to vomit, till this takes place, and is repeated every quarter of an hour; during which icy perspiration breaks out all over her; at the same time she has several attacks of diarrhoea, without abdominal pain. At first she vomited acid, slimy water, almost preventing her from regaining her breath. At length she felt entirely empty at the stomach. The least motion again brought on vertigo and vomiting; she dares not to stir, and, when her eyes dozed, the lids feeling as it were from being tired, vertigo and nausea immediately returned. In the morning, on rising, the nausea came again, and she vomited bile.

Chill Fever and Sweat.

Violent shaking chill, during which foam appears at the

mouth, after the bite. Shaking chill during headache, with vomiting. After breakfast, heaviness in every limb; he must, lie down,

grows sleepy; he is attacked by a severe internal chill, so

that he trembles (from the 30c). Pain in all the bones, as if every part would fall asunder.

feels as if broken from head to foot; thereupon violent coldness, so that nothing would warm her; without thirst, after the bite.

Being internally cold, it draws from the hip to below the

knee, without external coldness; warmth is agreeable. Cold hands, with flickering of the eyes, and nausea. Icy sweat covers the body, with faintness and vertigo, and vomiting at night.

Skin.

Itching on the head, behind the ears, on the nose, on the back of the neck, on the edge of the shoulders, on the back, on the nates, on the calf.

0 Phthisis florida. (Cures if given in the beginning.) (Baruch.)

c Scrofulosis. (A dose arouses the latent reacting powers.) (Ib.)

0 Ehachitis, caries, necrosis. (Great success from it.) (11.)

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This is another spider-poison. It seems to have a sphere of action differing from that of Tarantula. Drs. Hering, Neidhard, and Barlow have reported some cures made with it, but it is rarely used by the majority of physicians.

It appears to have cured headache, vertigo, neuralgia of the face and eyes. The headaches resemble those of Belladonna, Sepia, and Spigelia. It is homoeopathic to the headaches so common to many women, which always begin with “flickering before the eyes.” It also cures that symptom when unconnected with headache.

Its action on the stomach seems not to be direct, but reflex. It cures a vomiting when closing the eyes , and when it resembles that of sea-sickness. Its gastric symptoms resemble those of Cocculus. It is reported to have been used successfully in hepatitis, hysteria, climacteric affections, and some cardiac disorders. It is even said to cure incipient phthisis, scrofula, rachitis, caries, and necrosis.

Mr. Tafel informed me that Dr. Barlow, of New York, cures a peculiar severe pain in the side with Theridion, which resists all other remedies.

It has been used, generally, like Tarantula, in the highest potencies.