HELLEBORUS NIGER

Snow-rose


  • Produces a condition of sensorial depression. 
  • Sees, hears, tastes imperfectly, and general muscular weakness, which may go on to complete paralysis, accompanied by dropsical effusions. 
  • Hence, a remedy in low states of vitality and serious disease. 
  • Characteristic aggravation from 4 to 8 pm (Lycop). 
  • Sinking sensation. 
  • State of effusion in hydrocephalus. 
  • Mania of a melancholy type.

Mind

  • Slow in answering. 
  • Thoughtless; staring. 
  • Involuntary sighing. 
  • Complete unconsciousness. 
  • Picks lips and clothes.

Head

  • Forehead wrinkled in folds. 
  • Cold sweat. 
  • Stupefying headache. 
  • Rolls head day and night; moaning, sudden screams. 
  • Bores head into pillow; beats it with hands. 
  • Dull pain in occiput, with sensation of water swashing inside. 
  • Headache culminates in vomiting.

Eyes

  • Eyeballs turn upwards; squinting, vacant look. 
  • Pupils dilated. 
  • Eyes wide open, sunken. 
  • Night-blindness.

Nose

  • Dirty, dry nostrils. 
  • Rubs nose. 
  • Smell diminished. 
  • Nose pointed.

Face

  • Pale, sunken. 
  • Cold sweat. 
  • Wrinkled. 
  • Neuralgia on left side; parts so tender he cannot chew.

Mouth

  • Horrible smell from mouth. 
  • Lips dry and cracked. 
  • Tongue red and dry. 
  • Falling of lower jaw. 
  • Meaningless picking of lips. 
  • Grinding of teeth. 
  • Chewing motion. 
  • Greedily swallows cold water, though unconscious. 
  • Child nurses greedily, with disgust for food. 
  • Ptyalism, with sore corners of mouth.

Abdomen

  • Gurgling, as if bowels were full of water. 
  • Swollen, painful to touch.

Stool

  • Jelly-like, white mucus; involuntary.

Urine

  • Suppressed; scanty, dark; coffee-grounds sediment. 
  • Frequent urging. 
  • Child cannot urinate. 
  • Bladder over-distended.

Respiratory

  • Frequent sighing. 
  • Respiration irregular. 
  • Chest constricted; gasps for breath. 
  • Hydrothorax (Merc sulph).

Extremities

  • Automatic motion of one arm and leg. 
  • Limbs heavy and painful. 
  • Stretching of limbs. 
  • Thumb drawn into palm (Cupr). 
  • Vesicular eruption between fingers and toes.

Sleep

  • Sudden screams in sleep. 
  • Soporous sleep. 
  • Cri encephalique. 
  • Cannot be fully aroused.

Skin

  • Pale, dropsical, itching. 
  • Livid spots on skin. 
  • Sudden, watery, swelling of skin. 
  • Falling off of hair and nails. 
  • Angio-neurotic oedema.

Modalities

  • Worse, from evening until morning, from uncovering.

Relationship

  • (Hellebor foetidus, or, Polymnia-Bear's foot--Acts especially on spleen (Ceanothus); also rectum and sciatic nerve. Splenic pains extend to scapula, neck and head, worse left side and evening; chronic ague cake; hypertrophied uterus; glandular enlargements; hair and nails falling off; skin peeling). 
  • Hellebor orientalis (salivation).
  • Antidote: Camphor; Cinch.
  • Compare: Threatening effusion; Tuberc; Apis; Zinc; Opium; Cinch; Cicuta; Iodoform.

Dose

  • Tincture, to third potency.