Cistus Canadensis
(see too Salts of Mercurius)
This remedy is an antipsoric, a deep-acting remedy. It runs very close to
Calcarea, but is
milder in its action. It has the same exhaustion from exertion, dyspnoea, sweating and
coldness that we find in Calcarea. What will forcibly call your attention to a remedy will be the curing of
a bad and typical case. I remember the first time my attention was decidedly called to Cistus.
I had put it on my list to study from time to time and had come to the
conclusion that it was only a side issue, until a young lady of nineteen years of age fell
under my observation.
Glands: The glands of
the neck were large and hard, the parotids especially; she had foetid otorrhoea; her eyes
were inflamed and suppurating; there were fissures at the corners of the eyes; her lips were
cracked and bleeding, and she had salt rheum at the ends of the fingers.
I could not make Calcarea fit the patient, but after much study this little remedy seemed to be just
what I needed; and although she had had an immense amount of Homoeopathy, good and bad, this
remedy cured.
The glands inflame, become swollen and suppurate. It causes cries and
cures old ulcers. It has a scrofulous constitution. It is useful in chronic diarrhea, with
enlarged glands, even in those who are flabby, sickly and pallid and who cannot go upstairs
without losing, their breath.
Mucous membranes: All
the mucous membranes throw out a thick, yellowish, offensive mucus and hence it is suitable
in old and troublesome catarrh. The chest fills up with mucus and he feels relieved after
expectoration, but after he empties the chest it feels raw.
It has eruptions, herpes, tetter, scaly eruptions, salt rheum on the
hands and ends of the fingers, with cracking and bleeding of the fingers in winter and from
washing in cold water.
All its complaints are worse from mental exertion. He is excitable. His
cough, headache and pains are worse from mental exertion. Pains shoot from the head to the
ear. Shooting, stitching, tearing pains in inflamed parts. Red discharges from the ear date
back to eruptive diseases.
Headache: He feels as
if paralyzed after mental exertion, and mental excitement increases his sufferings, like Calcarea and Borax. If
he is compelled to fast headache comes on, and like Lyc., the headache will
be relieved after eating.
Frontal headache with coldness. In a warm room the perspiration comes
out, and it is cold, and the more he sweats the colder he gets. Pain in the forehead with
cold sweat, and the colder he gets the worse the pain becomes.
Sick headaches and great prostration with the headache. Sensation of
internal coldness of the forehead, especially in warm room. Pressing pain at the root of die
nose with headache. The parotid gland is so much enlarged that it pushes the head to one
side.
The glands of the abdomen swell with chronic diarrhea, and the swelling
may be tuberculous. Enlarged glands, with or without eruptions.
Skin: All over the
body there is a sensation of crawling; formication tingling and creeping like ants, and no
eruption. He scratches till the skin is raw trying to get relieved of the itching and
prickling. Eruption upon the face; eczema. Eruptions about the ear.
Cold feeling or burning in the nose, This is difficult to distinguish. In
acute coryza the nose fills up with thick, yellow mucus, and when this is blown out it
leaves the nasal cavity empty, and there is irritation; one will say it is a rawness,
another will say a coldness, and another will describe it as a burning.
Nose: There is relief
when the nose fills up again with mucus. In Ars. the mucus in the
nose is so acrid that it burns, but in Ant.
c., Aesculus, and in this remedy when the
nose is empty there is a burning or rawness. The sensation of rawness, coldness or burning
is caused by the inhalation of air.
An epidemic of coryza was prevalent, and this was the strongest symptom,
the pain caused by inhaling air, great burning from inhaled air. But it is not in the acute
coryza that we see the value of this remedy, it is in the old, chronic case, with thick
discharge, and a cold feeling or burning in the nose when inhaling air.
"Sharp shooting, intolerable itching and thick crusts, with burning
on right zygoma."
Face: This remedy has
cured lupus on the face. Caries of the lower jaw. Open, bleeding cancer on the lower lip.
Lupus exedens. Pain in all the joints of the face. It cures old, deep-seated, eating ulcers
about the ankle and shin, with copious acrid discharge, formication and swollen glands,
aggravation from bathing, extreme sensitiveness to the open air, only comfortable when very
warm.
The teeth have all sorts of disturbances; the gums settle away, the teeth
become loose; scorbutic gums. The same cold feeling is described in the throat as in the
nose-smarting and coldness. Mouth and throat full of mucus. The throat feels rough, as if
full of sand. Dry spots in the throat. The throat looks glossy, shining as if vanished, in
old atrophic catarrhs.
Every cold settles in the throat. Hot air feels good everywhere. In old
cases there is trouble with scrofulous glands, which are enlarged, and the patient wants the
heat; goes to the register and turns the heat on, wants to feel the heat in the nose, throat
and lungs.
Patients going into tuberculosis have that desire for beat; chilly
persons, They do not feel cold to touch, but they are cold subjectively, chilly. Hawking of
gum-like mucus, especially in the morning, fauces inflamed and dry. Suppuration of the
glands of the throat.
These patients crave pungent things, and especially want something to
warm them up, something to build them up, something stimulating herring, cheese; something
strong.
"Chronic induration and inflammation of the mammae.
Left mamma inflamed, suppurating, with a feeling of fullness in the
chest.
Sensibility to cold air,"
with inflamed glands. We see its tendency to produce enlargement of the
glands, and this would make us think of it in growths with involvement of the glands all
around. The glands of the neck are enlarged in lines, like knotted rope, as in Hodgkin’s disease.
Only a limited number of remedies have this knotting. Itching of the skin
and mucous membrane. The itching in the ear is not relieved by scratching, and the part is
raw from the constant rubbing and scratching. The eyes constantly itch. In the throat there
is continuous itching. In the chest there is a constant tickling, causing cough. At the anus
and all other orifices there is itching, and the itching parts are rubbed until raw and
bleeding.
Scrofula; swelling and suppuration of the glands of the neck. Eruption on
the back like shingles. Scrofulous ulcer on the back. Burning, bruised pain in the coccyx,
worse from touch.
That is like Carbo
an., in which the coccyx burns when pressed on, especially after
a slight injury in a nervous woman.
Tetter on the hands; blisters oozing after scratching. Diseases of the
nails. Hard, thickened places on the hands of workmen, with deep cracks.
The febrile symptoms have not been sufficiently brought out. In chronic
cases there is copious sweat with exhaustion. Night-sweats.
Lectures on Materia Medica- James
Tyler Kent
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