BELLADONNA
Deadly Nightshade
Belladonna acts upon every part of the nervous system, producing active
congestion, furious excitement, perverted special senses, twitching,
convulsions and pain. It has a marked action on the vascular system, skin and
glands. Belladonna always is associated with hot, red skin, flushed face,
glaring eyes, throbbing carotids, excited mental state, hyperæsthesia
of all senses, delirium, restless sleep, convulsive movements, dryness of mouth
and throat with aversion to water, neuralgic pains
that come and go suddenly (Oxytropis).
Heat, redness, throbbing and
burning. Great
children's remedy.
Epileptic spasms followed by nausea and vomiting. Scarlet fever and also
prophylactic. Here use the thirtieth potency. Exophthalmic goitre.
Corresponds to the symptoms of "air-sickness" in aviators. Give as
preventive. No thirst, anxiety or fear.
Belladonna stands for violence of attack
and suddenness of onset.
Mind.--Patient lives in a world of his
own, engrossed by specters and visions and oblivious to surrounding realities.
While the retina is insensible to actual objects, a host of visual
hallucinations throng about him and come to him from within. He is acutely
alive and crazed by a flood of subjective
visual impressions and fantastic illusions. Hallucinations; sees monsters,
hideous faces. Delirium; frightful images; furious;
rages, bites, strikes; desire to escape.
Loss of consciousness. Disinclined
to talk. Perversity, with tears. Acuteness of all senses.
Changeableness.
Head.--Vertigo, with falling to left
side or backwards. Sensitive to least contact. Much throbbing and heat. Palpitation reverberating in head
with labored breathing. Pain; fullness, especially in forehead, also occiput,
and temples. Headache from suppressed catarrhal flow.
Sudden outcries. Pain worse light, noise, jar, lying down and in afternoon;
better by pressure and semi-erect posture. Boring of head into pillow;
drawn backward and rolls from side to side. Constant moaning.
Hair splits; is dry and comes out. Headache worse on right side and when lying
down; ill effects, colds, etc; from having hair cut.
Face.--Red, bluish-red, hot, swollen, shining; convulsive
motion of muscles of face. Swelling of upper lip.
Facial neuralgia with twitching muscles and flushed face.
Eyes.--Throbbing
deep in eyes on lying down. Pupils dilated
(Agnus). Eyes
feel swollen and protruding, staring, brilliant; conjunctiva red; dry, burn; photophobia; shooting in eyes. Exophthalmus.
Ocular illusions; fiery appearance. Diplopia, squinting, spasms of lids. Sensation as if eyes were half
closed. Eyelids swollen. Fundus
congested.
Ears.--Tearing pain
in middle and external ear. Humming noises. Membrana tympani bulges and injected. Parotid
gland swollen. Sensitive to loud tones. Hearing very acute. Otitis media. Pain
causes delirium. Child cries out in sleep; throbbing and beating
pain deep in ear, synchronous with heart beat. Hematoma auris.
Acute and sub-acute conditions of Eustachian tube. Autophony-hearing
one's voice in ear.
Nose.--Imaginary
odors. Tingling in tip of nose. Red and swollen. Bleeding of
nose, with red face. Coryza; mucus mixed
with blood.
Mouth.--Dry.
Throbbing pain in teeth. Gumboil. Tongue red on
edges. Strawberry tongue. Grinding of teeth. Tongue
swollen and painful. Stammering.
Throat.--Dry, as if
glazed; angry-looking congestion (Ginseng);
red, worse on right side. Tonsils
enlarged; throat feels constricted; difficult
deglutition; worse, liquids. Sensation of a lump.
sophagus dry; feels contracted. Spasms in throat. Continual
inclination to swallow. Scraping sensation. Muscles of deglutition very sensitive. Hypertrophy
of mucous membrane.
Stomach.--Loss of appetite. Averse to meat and milk. Spasmodic pain in
epigastrium. Constriction; pain runs to spine.
Nausea and vomiting. Great
thirst for cold water. Spasms of stomach. Empty retching. Abhorrence of liquids.
Spasmodic hiccough. Dread
of drinking. Uncontrollable vomiting.
Abdomen.--Distended,
hot. Transverse colon protrudes like a pad. Tender,
swollen. Pain as if clutched by a hand; worse, jar, pressure. Cutting
pain across; stitches in left side of abdomen, when coughing, sneezing, or
touching it. Extreme sensitiveness to touch, bed-clothes, etc (Laches).
Stools.--Thin,
green, dysenteric; in lumps like chalk. Shuddering
during stool. Stinging pain in rectum; spasmodic
stricture. Piles more sensitive with backache. Prolapsus ani (Ignatia; Podoph).
Urine.--Retention. Acute urinary infections. Sensation of motion in bladder as of a worm. Urine scanty,
with tenesmus; dark and turbid, loaded with
phosphates. Vesical region sensitive. Incontinence,
continuous dropping. Frequent
and profuse. Hæmaturia where no pathological condition can be found. Prostatic
hypertrophy.
Male.--Testicles hard, drawn up,
inflamed. Nocturnal sweat of genitals. Flow of prostatic fluid. Desire
diminished.
Female.--Sensitive forcing downwards, as if all the viscera would protrude at genitals.
Dryness and heat of vagina. Dragging
around loins. Pain in sacrum. Menses increased;
bright red, too early, too profuse. Hæmorrhage hot. Cutting pain from hip to hip. Menses and lochia very offensive
and hot. Labor-pains come and go suddenly. Mastitis pain, throbbing, redness, streaks
radiate from nipple. Breasts feel heavy; are hard and red. Tumors
of breast, pain worse lying down. Badly smelling hæmorrhages,
hot gushes of blood. Diminished lochia.
Respiratory.--Drying
in nose, fauces, larynx, and trachea. Tickling, short, dry cough; worse at
night. Larynx feels sore. Respiration oppressed, quick,
unequal. Cheyne-Stokes respiration (Cocaine; Opium). Hoarse; loss
of voice. Painless hoarseness. Cough with pain
in left hip. Barking cough, whooping cough, with pain in
stomach before attack, with expectoration of blood. Stitches
in chest when coughing. Larynx very painful;
feels as if a foreign body were in it, with cough. High,
piping voice. Moaning at every breath.
Heart.--Violent
palpitation, reverberating in head, with labored breathing. Palpitation from least exertion. Throbbing
all through body. Dichrotism. Heart seemed too large. Rapid but weakened pulse.
Extremities.--Shooting
pains along limbs. Joints swollen, red, shining, with
red streaks radiating. Tottering gait. Shifting rheumatic pains. Phlegmasia
alba dolens. Jerking limbs. Spasms. Involuntary limping. Cold extremities.
Back.--Stiff neck.
Swelling of glands of neck.
Pain in nape, as if it would break. Pressure
on dorsal region most painful. Lumbago, with pain in
hips and thighs.
Skin.--Dry and hot; swollen, sensitive; burns scarlet, smooth. Eruption like scarlatina, suddenly
spreading. Erythema; pustules on face. Glands
swollen, tender, red. Boils.
Acne rosacea. Suppurative
wounds. Alternate redness
and paleness of the skin. Indurations after
inflammations. Erysipelas.
Fever.--A high
feverish state with comparative absence of toxæmia.
Burning, pungent, steaming, heat.
Feet icy cold. Superficial blood-vessels, distended.
Perspiration dry only on head. No thirst with fever.
Sleep.--Restless, crying out, gritting
of teeth. Kept awake by pulsation of blood-vessels. Screams out in sleep. Sleeplessness, with
drowsiness. Starting when closing the eyes
or during sleep. Sleeps with hands under head (Ars; Plat).
Modalities.--Worse, touch, jar, noise, draught, after
Relationship.--Compare: Sanguisorba officinals 2x-6x, a
member of the Rosaceæ family, (Profuse, long-lasting menses, especially in
nervous patients with congestive symptoms to head and limbs. Passive
hæmorrhages at climacteric. Chronic
metritis. Hæmorrhage from lungs. Varices and
ulcers). Mandragora--(Mandrake).
A narcotic of the ancients-Restless excitability and bodily
weakness. Desire for sleep. Has
antiperiodic properties like
Non-Homeopathic Uses.--Atropia and its
salts are used for ophthalmic purposes, to dilate the pupil and paralyze the
accommodation.
Given internally or hypodermically, it is antagonistic to Opium and
Morphine. Physostigma and Prussic Acid. Narcotic poisons and mushroom poisoning. Renal colic 1-200 of a grain hypodermically.
Atropin injected subcutaneously in doses from a
milligram upwards for intestinal obstruction threatening life.
Hypodermically 1-80 gr night sweats in phthisis.
Atropia 1-20 gr is
antagonistic to 1 gr. Morphine.
Also used as a local anæsthetic, antispasmodic,
and to dry up secretions, milk, etc. Hypodermically 1-80 gr
night sweats in phthisis.
Dose.--Atropia Sulph, 1-120 to 1-60 grain.
Antidotes to Belladonna: Camph; Coff; Opium; Acon.
Complementary: Calc. Bellad (contains lime). Especially in
semi-chronic and constitutional diseases.
Incompatible: Acet ac.
Dose.--First to
thirtieth potency and higher. Must be repeated
frequently in acute diseases.