Nux Vomica

No household should be without its little homoeopathic medicine chest for common ailments, and no homoeopathic medicine chest should be without Nux. The nursery medicine chest when we were children contained Nux, and the nurses were not far wrong when they dubbed it " temper medicine ".

Hahnemann , writing about Nux, tells us that there are just a few medicines whose symptoms are so similar to those of the common ailments, that they are very frequently found useful. These he terms the Polychrests — drugs of many uses.

It is the polycrests that should be at hand for common acute ailments, and pre-eminent among these is " the Nux vomica seed ". He says that formerly it was feared to employ it, because it used to be administered in enormously large doses (a whole grain, or several grains).* [* Present-day official medicine gives the dose of Nux tincture as 5 to 15 M. But their Nux is standardized to 0.25 per cent. of strychnine, whereas ours is the strongest obtainable. From our " Nux ø" potencies are run up.]

But that it proves the mildest and most efficacious remedy when administered in the small doses he indicates, where disease-symptoms correspond to those it is capable of producing in healthy human beings.

" From his careful experience of many years " he tells us that Nux is more frequently needed by persons of an anxious, zealous, fiery, hot temperament : or of a malicious, wicked, irascible disposition. (But this does not mean, of course, that Nux may not come in for any ailment, the symptoms agreeing.)

There seem to be remedies, always, to fit abnormal conditions, and that in the most extraordinary way. Nux, as you will see, should be an invaluable remedy in Paraguay, for the times when the natives run amok.

Sir John Weir, in his pamphlet " Present-Day Attitude ", quotes a Dr. Lindsay , of Paraguay, in regard to the powerful effect on the nervous system, in those parts, of the North wind. (It will be remembered that Nux is one of the few remedies worse in dry weather and worse in windy weather.)

Dr. Lindsay says,

" This is a dry, hot wind.

It dries up everything it comes across.

Its effects on animals of all kinds are most extraordinary.

" All domestic animals-horses, cattle, dogs, fowls, suffer in the same way as man does. . . .

Everybody's nerves are on edge.

The most trivial incident, a word in jest, misunderstood, may lead to murder.

" An older native, meeting a younger of a slightly better class, saluted him with, Why, boy, you've got to look almost like a man, and got a bullet from the boy and fell dead.

" During the north wind the number of woundings and murders is greater than at any other time. When native dances are allowed during a north wind, we lie listening for the shots or for the footsteps of those running to fetch help for a knifing case.

" Now listen to the provings of Nux vomica.

Worse dry wind.

Exaggerated sensitiveness and irritability.

Excessive uneasiness.

Moral exaltation and excitability, with extreme sensitiveness to least pain, to least smell, noise or movement.

Insane desire to kill.

Takes everything amiss ; readily breaks out into scolding and abuse.

He is hasty.

Looks malignantly at anyone who asks him anything, without answering.

It seems as if he would like to strike anyone in the face who speaks a word to him, so irritable and uncontrollable is his disposition.

Every harmless word offends.

Peevish.

Malevolent.

Fiery, excited temperament.

Ill-humour, vexation and anger, breaking out in acts of violence.

Extravagant and frantic actions.

" Here you have some of the strange symptoms of the materia medica exemplified in a most astonishing manner."

The following are among the black type mental symptoms of Nux culled from Allen's Encyclopedia and from Hahnemann : symptoms repeatedly caused by the drug in provings or poisonings, and repeatedly cured thereby in homoeopathic potencies.

Quarrelsome, even to violence.

Extraordinary anxiety.

Sadness.

She cannot get over the smallest evil.

Much disposed to scolding crossness.

Much given to reproach others for their faults.

He feels everything too strongly.

Oversensitive to impressions of the senses.

Cannot bear strong odours and bright light.

Cannot bear any noise or speaking.

Music and singing affect him strongly.

Irresolution.

Cannot endure the slightest ailment.

Very hypochondriac, and affected by the slightest thing, after eating.

Dread of literary work at which one must think and employ the ideas.

Nux affects body and soul, and that always in an extreme manner. Not only mind, head, brain, special senses, but the whole of the digestive system, mouth to anus ; the whole of the respiratory system ; the liver and portal system ; the urinary and genital systems. It affects nerves, muscles, skin, sleep. It is a great fever medicine — symptoms agreeing. No wonder that the homoeopaths of what one may call the middle period of Homoeopathy, who indulged in low potencies and got their best result in acute disease, made such great use of Nux. They had the polychrests at their finger tips.

In the head, Nux's black letter symptoms are :

Intoxication.

Drunken confusion in the head.

Dullness of head after dinner, which recurred twenty-four hours afterwards.

In the morning; drunken, giddy heaviness of the head.

Aching pain in the occiput in the morning immediately after rising from bed.

Squeezing headache.

Dullness, headache, felt even before opening the eyes.

Worse moving the eyes.

Morning headache, as if head had been beaten with an axe.

Headache, worse after eating, with nausea and very sour vomiting.

Attacks of vertigo, as if it turned round in the brain, with momentary loss of consciousness.

Drunken confusion of the head.

Here one may note that Nux is (as it should be !) a great medicine for drunkards. Even lay homoeopaths used to know that. An aunt of ours, seeing the misery of a poor family where the father drank, sent some Nux : with the result, a happy family and no drink. And at out-patients in the Hospital, where a poor woman, sometimes, has confessed her trouble — a husband that drank, Nux has been sent, and changed everything.

There was one, only the other day, where later, the report was — if the man drank still, he had ceased to be so sullen and impossible, for which she was grateful. (Sulphur, Nux's complimentary remedy, has also a reputation for persons " gifted for drink " as one poor woman expressed it.

One of the residents at Hospital, years ago, used to treat his drunks", at Casualty, with Camphor in potency.

And Burnett extolled Spiritus glandium Quercus (acorn tincture) as helpful for old drunkards who were paying the penalty.)

Nux, in addition to its hypersensitiveness to light, to noise, to odours, affects the organs of sense. The eyes, with smarting, especially the internal and external canthi," as from salt ". They are mattery, and weep.

But the nose, as part of the respiratory system, is especially affected by Nux. And here is one of the great spheres of action of Nux (in the common cold) where its indications are rather peculiar and very definite. We will again quote the black letter symptoms, running on down the whole respiratory tract.

Profuse discharge of mucus from one nostril, that seems obstructed by dry catarrh.

Frequent discharge from both nostrils, obstructed by dry catarrh.

Fluent coryza in the morning.

Coryza fluent during the day, and stopped at night.

Real coryza, with scraping in the throat, crawling and creeping in the nose, and sneezing.

Catarrh with headache, heat in the face, chilliness, and much mucus in throat.

Sneezing in bed : after rising, sudden fluent coryza.

Throat rough from catarrh.

Painful, raw and sore, at the palate.

Rawness in throat that provokes cough.

Sore throat.

Scraped throat.

Rawness and scraped feeling in larynx.

Provokes cough.

Violent cough before rising in the morning, with expectoration of clotted blood, and soreness in chest.

Very early morning cough.

Dry cough, from midnight till daybreak.

Scraping in chest, causing hawking.

Cough which brings on headache as if the skull would burst.

Cough which causes bruised pain in epigastrium.

Asthmatic constrictive tightness transversely through the chest, when walking and going up hill.

Among the feverish symptoms of Nux are :

After drinking, immediately shivering and chilliness.

Hahnemann says, " serious ailments from catching cold are often removed by Nux. Nux has :

Chilliness on the slightest movement ; on the slightest exposure to open air.

Chilled by the slightest draught.

Cannot get warm.

Great coldness, not removed by the heat of the stove, nor by bed coverings.

He cannot get warm.

Fever in the afternoon, chilliness and coldness, with blue nails, followed by general heat and burning hands, with thirst, first for water, afterwards for beer.

And now to run down the digestive tract, from mouth to anus, as affected by Nux, giving only the black letter symptoms :

Putrid taste in the morning, but food and drink taste right.

Bitter taste.

Putrid taste on coughing.

Repugnance to food.

And to the accustomed tobacco and coffee.

Eructation of bitter and sour liquid.

Nausea — in the morning : after eating.

Smoking makes him nauseated and qualmish.

After a meal he is qualmish, anxious, nauseated and sick, as after a violent purge.

Inclination to vomit.

Vomiting of sour mucus.

Retching, as if to vomit, while hawking mucus from fauces.

Tension above stomach.

Pressure, as from a stone in epigastrium : worse walking.

Pressure in stomach, after eating a little, in the morning.

A metallic, herby taste returns.

Pressure as from overloading the stomach, immediately after eating.

Violent gastric symptoms.

Scraped sensation in stomach.

Flatulent distension of abdomen, after eating.

Colic, as if diarrhoea from taking cold would come on.

Cutting colic, with qualmishness.

Colic that causes nausea.

Colic speedily disappearing during rest — sitting or lying.

Pain in abdominal ring, as if a hernia would become incarcerated.

Sensation of weakness in abdominal ring, as if a hernia would occur.

Hahnemann has a number of black type symptoms in regard to the effect of Nux on intestines.

Pinching, tearing abdominal pain, as if diarrhoea from a chill would occur.

Needle-pricks — cutting pains pinching pains.

After belly-ache evacuations of dark-coloured mucus, which caused smarting-burning at anus.

Sensation of weakness in the abdominal ring, as if a hernia would occur.

Forcing down towards the genitals in the lower abdomen.

Development of a tendency to inguinal hernia.

The rectum and anus are extremely affected by Nux.

Blind hemorrhoids.

Sharp pressive pain in the rectum, after a stool and after a meal, especially on exerting the mind, and studying.

Tearing sticking and constricting pain, as from aggravated blind piles, in the rectum and anus, after a meal and after exerting the mind and reflecting.

After a stool it seemed as if some remained behind, and could not be evacuated, with a sense of constriction in the rectum, not in the anus.

Discharge of bright blood with faces, with a sensation of constriction and contraction in the rectum, during stool.

With the stool it always seemed as if it were not enough, and as if the evacuation were incomplete.

Anxious desire for stool.

One has been told by the old Sisters at the Hospital, that in the older days of Homoeopathy, no one dreamed of operating for piles : they used to cure them with Nux and Sulphur — low — and in alternation. (Pace shades of Hahnemann ! ) Sulphur has certainly produced piles ; and cured them.

Frequent ineffectual desire for stool, as if the evacuation were incomplete.

Diarrhoea of a dark colour, especially in the morning and immediately after dinner.

Obliged to go to stool three or four times a day : it was often ineffectual, and the stool when passed was soft.

Constipation, as from constriction and contraction of the intestines.

Nash elucidates this phase of the action of Nux.

He says, " Frequent and ineffectual desire to defaecate, or passing but small quantities at each attempt.

This symptom is pure gold.

There are a few other remedies that have it, but none so positive and persistently.

" It is the guiding symptoms in the constipation to which Nux is homoeopathic, and in my experience will then, and then only, cure."

He says, Carrol Dunham here contrasted Nux and Bryonia. That " there was never any reason for confounding them, or alternating them. The Nux constipation is caused by irregular peristaltic action of the intestines, hence the frequent ineffectual desire for stool : the Bryonia constipation is caused by lack of secretion in the intestines. With Bryonia there was no desire, and the stools were dry and hard, as if burnt." He adds :

" This Nux symptom is found not in constipation only.

It is present in dysentery ; where the stools (of slimy mucus and blood) are small and unsatisfactory.

With Nux in dysentery, the pains are very greatly relieved for a short time with every stool : with Mercury (Merc. cor.) the pain and straining continue after every stool — the never-get-done sensation. . . . But whether the patient has constipation, dysentery, diarrhoea or any other diseases, if there is this frequent, ineffectual desire for stool, we think first of Nux vomica, and give it unless contraindicated by other symptoms."

What Nux really causes in the abdominal organs is irregular peristalsis : colicky pinchings here and there driving the intestinal contents at once forwards and back. Hence the character of defecation. A little passed with relief, and then more to come : and always a sensation that there is more to come.

Kent says : " Another state running through Nux is that actions are turned in opposite directions. When the stomach is sick, it will empty its contents with no great effort ordinarily, but in Nux there is retching and straining as if the action were going the wrong way, as if it would force the abdomen open ; a reversed action ; retches, gags and strains, and after a prolonged effort he finally empties the stomach."

He describes, in the bowels, " a kind of anti-peristalsis. In constipation, the more he strains the harder it is to get a stool."

The urinary organs are also affected with the Nux spasmodic condition.

Urging to urinate.

Frequent desire to urinate : constantly called out that he would be better if he could pass water.

Painful, ineffectual desire to urinate.

Violent straining : the efforts to urinate were constant and most painful, without being able to pass a single drop.

Urine passed with difficulty.

Whilst urinating, a burning and tearing pain in the, neck of the bladder.

Whilst urinating an itching in the urethra.

Menses three days early, with cramps in abdoi.wen.

During the menses, nausea in the morning, with chilliness and attacks of fainting.

In the convulsions of Nux, one observes the strychnine element.

The slightest touch of the hand immediately brought on spasms.

Years ago, in the country, a wretched hen was cooped all alone, because " if one of the others touched her, she had a fit ". Tested, by shaking the coop, she was crumpled up, immediately, in convulsions. Some Nux was left for her, and when seen again a few days. later, she was running about with the rest of the fowls.

" Nux has the most violent convulsions with opisthotonos ; convulsions of all the muscles of the body, with purple face and loss of breath from the movements ; conscious, or semi-conscious during the whole spasm, aware of the sufferings and contortions, which are horrible ; worse from the slightest draught of air ; tickling the feet ; the merest touch of the throat causes gagging." ( Kent .)

Nux produces not only convulsions, but lockjaw. It has caused " contraction of the jaws, like lockjaw " — " closure of the jaws with complete consciousness." Lockjaw is very fatal to horses who have " picked up a nail ".

One remembers, long ago, a paragraph in an evening paper. The owner of a horse with lockjaw called in a vet. to poison the beast, and the vet. administered a big dose of strychnine. Meeting the owner of the horse a few days later, he stopped him to ask after the horse. " I'm driving him," was the reply. . . . One of the accidental homoeopathic cures by a vet who knew no homoeopathy. (Strychnine, of course, is one of the alkaloids of Nux.)

To write exhaustively on Nux " of many uses ", would be " to write a complete materia medica ".

But just a few more gleanings in regard to Nux :

Nash says, " Spasm, sensitiveness (nervous), and chilliness are three general characteristics of this remedy.

" Anxiety with irritability ; and inclination to commit suicide, but afraid to die.

" For very particular, careful, zealous persons." ( Kent gives only Arsenicum and Nux under the heading fastidious ; and Nux is again like Arsenic in its fear of knives for the impulses they suggest.)

" Twitchings, spasms, convulsions, worse the slightest touch. Convulsions with consciousness.

" Sleepy in the evening for hours before bedtime : then lies awake for an hour or two then wants to sleep late in the morning.

" When in sickness, or from abuse of coffee or alcohol Nux symptoms supervene, Nux will be curative.

" Great heat, whole body burning hot, especially face red and hot, yet patient cannot move or uncover in the least without feeling chilly. It matters not what the fever, inflammatory, remittent, the fever accompanying sore throat, rheumatism, influenza, ' with these indications give Nux, and you will not be disappointed in the result. It took me years to learn the value of this symptom," says Nash.

" The indigestion of Nux is an hour or two after eating — sour taste — heart-burn — bloating, must loosen clothes, with pressure like a stone in stomach — with the Nux mood and temper. The causes being, coffee, alcohol, debauchery, abuse of drugs, sedentary habits, broken rest from long night-watching, too high living. Nux is adapted to complaints from such causes."

One of the characteristics of Nux is a scraped sensation, throat — chest — stomach, in inflammatory conditions.

Nux dreams of lice, as a woman who had taken Nux for a month found to her cost. The dreams of Nux are angry, amorous, anxious, of disease, of misfortune, of quarrels.

Nux is one of the few drugs that crave fats ; also alcohol and beer ; or, on the other hand, Nux may loathe ale, beer, coffee, food — even though hungry, and may hate meat, tobacco, and water.

Kent gives some vivid little Nux pictures. "Nux is an old dyspeptic, lean, hungry, withered ; bent forward ; premature age ; always selecting his food and digesting almost none ; aversion to meat, it makes him sick ; craves pungent, bitter things, tonics. Weak stomach ; after meals pain in stomach ; stomach sinks in ; withers and loses flesh."

And again : " A business man has been at his desk till he is tired out : he receives many letters, he has a great many little irons in the fire ; he is troubled with a thousand little things ; his mind is constantly hurried from one thing to another until he is tortured. It is not so much the heavy affairs, but the little things. He is compelled to stimulate his memory to attend to all the little details ; he goes home and thinks about it ; lies awake at night ; his mind is confused with the whirl of business, and the affairs of the day crowd upon him ; finally brain fag comes on.

When the little details come to him he gets angry, and wants to go away, tears things up, scolds, goes home and takes it out of his family and children.

Sleeps by fits and starts ; wakens at 3 a.m. and his business affairs crowd upon him so that he cannot sleep again till late in the morning, and wakens up tired and exhausted.

He wants to sleep late in the morning. . . . Melancholy, sadness, but all the time feels as if he could fly to pieces, jerks things about, tears things up ; wants to force things his own way. Driven by impulses to commit acts that verge upon insanity — the destruction of others."