Clematis Erecta
Clematis has only been
partially proved, and consequently it applies only to a few conditions, but these are very
important, so that it cannot be passed over.
Skin: It has vesicular
eruptions almost erysipelatous in character. One almost constant mental state is that he
fears to be alone, yet dreads company. fie dreads the necessity of having company, and it
seems that the atmosphere is full of frightful and distressing things to worry him.
This makes him low-spirited. The remedy seems to fit the sycotic
constitution in its mental state and its generals.
It seems to be fitted to those who had gonorrhoea recently suppressed,
because after that suppression will come on this mental state with inflammation of glands.
It is rather singular about the eruptions. One would not think that from
so harmless a little shrub so much trouble would come; but there are persons who are just as
sensitive to this vine as to Rhus and it resembles Rhus to a great extent in its manifestations.
It produces just, as poisonous a condition as Rhus.
Here I might speak of several
remedies which relate to the Rhus poison.
There are many vesicular remedies that look like Rhus,
and all of them you will have to use
more or less in their antidotal relations to each other, but it is well to be sure in a
given case which one of them produced the poison. Croton tig., Rhus, Ranunculus, Anacardium and Clematis at
times look so much alike that I am unable to tell them apart by their eruptions.
They are all similar enough to each other to become universal antidotes.
The others are all deeper acting than Rhus. The Ranunculus, the little buttercup, has cured epithelioma of the lids. It has cured
cancerous affections, so we say it goes deep into the tissues.
On the outer head we have a part of the manifestations of Clematis vesicular eruptions with great itching, stinging and crawling. Now what is
true of the eruption here will be true of the Clematis eruption
everywhere. It is aggravated from washing.
It will smart and burn, and a quasi-inflammation will set in from
washing. Contrast this with the internal features of the remedy. In the teeth and jaws the
pain is violent, but while the eruption is made worse from cold applications, the pain
inside the jaw and the teeth is relieved by cold water held in the mouth, and aggravated
violently from heat, and from the warmth of the bed.
The eruption is aggravated from the warmth of the bed, and also from cold
washing. We have to go into the details a little to see whether an eruption is Rhus
or whether it is Clematis, or something else. Vesicular eruptions filling with yellow fluid and with
induration under the vesicles.
It produces eruptions very closely related to herpes and eczema, and they
spread. About the eyes we have vesicular eruptions. If seen in one stage it will be
vesicular, and if later, it will be seen as an ulceration. Simple and graver forms of
herpes. Herpes zoster about the body.
"Burning, and smarting of the eyes; worse from closing them.
Inflammation of the iris.
Eyes inflamed, protruded, dim.
Chronic irritation of the lids."
Teeth: The pains in
connection with the teeth are aggravated from the warmth of the bed, which is general; they
come at night, are aggravated from warm things held in the mouth and ameliorated from
holding cold water in the mouth.
Stitching and drawing pains in the teeth; worse at night; better for a
short time from holding cold water in the mouth; better from drawing in cold air; worse from
the warmth of the bed. The toothache is tolerable during the day, but as soon as he lies
down in bed and assumes a horizontal position it increases to an intolerable degree. Pain in
hollow tooth, better by cold water or drawing in cold air.
Glands: Swelling of
the glands of the groin is a striking feature even when connected with scirrhus. It is
connected also with suppressed gonorrhea, and with rheumatism of the joints. Pain and
swelling of the right spermatic cord; this is worse at night, worse from walking and from
the warmth of the bed.
Bladder: While it has
both sides, strange to say there is more trouble in the glands that are on the right side of
the body than on the left. It has produced much trouble in the bladder. Constant urging to
urinate, most painful tenesmus. Flow stopping and starting. The urethra is painful to
pressure. Micturition is remarkably slow, only a feeble stream because of the smallness of
the urethra.
It is the nature of this remedy to infiltrate and inflame tissues, and,
hence it is useful in those cases of gonorrhoea where they have been slow in passing away,
where they have been treated by injection.
That slow inflammation of the urethra will infiltrate and the urethra
feels like a large whip-cord, painful upon pressure, and this goes on until the canal is
almost closed. You will be surprised to find, when Clematis is indicated,
that after giving that remedy the discharge is re-established, and soon the old stricture
goes away. At the end of two or three months he feels nothing of it.
A striking feature in connection with the urine, bladder, etc., is that
the patient cannot quite empty the bladder. He always feels as if there was a little more,
and when he appears to have finished it will keep dribbling away. This is a common feature
of stricture.
"Inability to evacuate all the urine at once.
When beginning to urinate it burns the worst, while urinating it sticks
in urethra, and after urinating it still continues to burn.
Discharge from the urethra of thick pus."
It is seldom indicated in the very first stage of gonorrhoea during the
highest inflammation, but in those cases that are inclined to hang on. Then come the
sequelae if gonorrhea be suppressed. Inflammation of the testes is common, and this is one
of the medicines suitable.
Strange to say, the right side of the body is more commonly affected than
the left. Intermittent flow of the urine. Urine stops and starts with the chordee still
present. The right spermatic cord is very sensitive. Pain in the testes, drawing. Painful,
inflamed and swollen testes. Orchitis with much painful swelling and hardness. Now when the
swelling has gone down-perhaps you gave Puls., which was the remedy for the time, but it did not
finish the case, there is induration of this portion. Swelling of the right half of the
scrotum with thickening and banging low down.
Women: Provings have
not been made very much in women, which is to be regretted, because it would be well to know
if this remedy affects the ovaries as it does the testes. It has been clinically used, and
has cured many troubles in women, especially inflammation in the mammary gland.
"Ulceration and hardness of glands.
Scirrhus of the breast with induration and ulceration.
Scirrhus of the left mamma with stitches in the shoulder;"
this is a clinical symptom, "worse in the night."
She cannot bear to be uncovered.
It has rheumatic conditions of the limbs from suppressed gonorrhea. Great
nervous weakness and twitchings of the muscles. It has pain on lying down and preparatory to
going to sleep. An electric shock; twitching, jerking, as if a faradic battery had been
turned on. It has also a general febrile condition, but nothing very striking.
Vesicular eruptions on the body. Herpetic eruptions here and there it has
a herpetic constitution.
"Eruption of vesicles and pustules from the former exuded a clear,
watery secretion, from the latter a purulent fluid."
Yellow vesicles and yellow pustules. Both are common to this remedy.
"Dark, burning eruptions with violent itching."
Herpes that ulcerate. Ichorous, spreading ulcers.
Lectures on Materia Medica- James
Tyler Kent
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