642.13.

01- Aconitum Napellus etc

 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Compiled by

Taan Kaat

Publication 1201
Aconite
1st Edition
December 2020

© VENN OLI

VENN NALA MAYYAM

Karutthampatti Mukkoottu
K.Vetrappatti PO, Harur Tk
Dharmapuri Dt, TN 636005, India
www.nalamayyam.com

Your comments to
nala.mayyam@gmail.com

References:
https://qjure.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC72ldRJXjeSIq7p5T1xEgZg by Dr,Saravanakumar in
TAMIL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2zw5zGUaUo Aconite 1/2 in TAMIL
PLant Kingdom in Homeopathy = Vennoli-publication-1191
PLant Kingdom- classification by Jan Scholten =Vennoli-publication-1193
PLant Kingdom-Remedy code = Vennoli-publication-1195
PLant Kingdom-Families = Vennoli-publication-1197

Page 2
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Table of Contents
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 3

FAMILY .......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Aconitum Nepellus and other Aconitums .................................................................................................... 5

Aconitums 642.13.01 .................................................................................................................................... 6

Aconitum napellus .................................................................................................................................... 6

Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 6

Mind ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

General.................................................................................................................................................. 7

Body ...................................................................................................................................................... 7

Aconitum anthora...................................................................................................................................... 8

Aconitum cammarum................................................................................................................................ 9

Aconitum ferox ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Aconitum lycoctonum............................................................................................................................. 11

Aconitum septentrionale ......................................................................................................................... 13

Materia Medica ........................................................................................................................................... 14

MM- Aconitum Napellus -By John Henry CLARKE, M.D. ......................................................................... 14

MM- ACONITUM ANTHORA _- By TIMOTHY F. ALLEN, A.M., M.D. ........................................................ 25

MM- Aconitum Cammarum.--By John Henry CLARKE, M.D. .................................................................. 26

MM- Aconitum Ferox -By John Henry CLARKE, M.D............................................................................... 27

MM- Aconitum Lycoctonum -By John Henry CLARKE, M.D. ................................................................... 29

MM- ACONITUM SEPTENTRIONALE _- By TIMOTHY F. ALLEN, A.M., M.D. ............................................ 32

MM- Aconitinum -By John Henry CLARKE, M.D...................................................................................... 32

ACONITUM NAPELLUS -compares .............................................................................................................. 36

Page 3
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

CASES .......................................................................................................................................................... 46

Aconitum Napellus - for acute illness or is it deeper? ............................................................................ 46

Aconitum case 1 .................................................................................................................................. 46

Aconitum case 2 .................................................................................................................................. 48

Aconitum case 3 .................................................................................................................................. 48

Aconitum case 4 .................................................................................................................................. 49

Aconit, Natrium sulphuricum, Fuzzy Impressions, Two Cases ................................................................ 52

Page 4
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

FAMILY

Aconitum Nepellus and other Aconitums

642.13.01
Equivalent to Carbon series, Stage-01

Phylum Class Subclass Phase Subphase Stage

6 4 2 1 3 01
Angiospermae Fabanae Ranunculidae Ranunculales Ranunculaceae Acnitum
Nepellus
Series Carbon etc
1,2,3,4

6 Angiospermae : Flowering plants.

64. Fabanae : There is an integration of all the first 4 series, (Hydrogen, Carbon,
Silicon and Iron ) with the emphasis on the Iron series. This is normal life.
Problems are a combination of individual, family and community problems.

642. Ranunculidae: Carbon series: conflict between the playful child and responsible
adult.

642.1 Ranunculaceae: they feel weak, needing support in a raw world.

642.13. Ranunculaceae : They feel that the world is raw. It is too harsh and insensitive to
other people. They therefore seek guidance from others, they seek protection and
comfort.

642.13.01. Stage 01 Includes

1. Aconitum napellus, Aconite (acon)

2. Aconitum anthora (acon-a)
3. Aconitum cammarum (acon-c)
4. Aconitum ferox (acon-f)
5. Aconitum lycoctonum (acon-l)
6. Aconitum septentrionale (acon-s)

Page 5
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Aconitums 642.13.01

Aconitum napellus
Aconitum napellus, Monkshood, aconite, Wolf's Bane, Fuzi, Monk's Blood,
Monk's Hood, is a species of Aconitum in the family Ranunculaceae, native
and endemic to western and central Europe, herbaceous perennial plant

Introduction
Ailments from acute shock and fear they might die. They see the world as a
dangerous place and when something dangerous happens their idea is
confirmed and they get into a panic with hyperventilation and palpitations.
He is sure he will die and even predicts the time of death.

Mind
Fright, terror, agonising fear, beside himself, frantic < pain, screams,
moans, gnaw the fist, bites the nails, wants to die.
Ailments from fright, emotional and physical mental tension, weeping.
Delirium.
Sensitive; music saddens.
Ailments from: anger, vexation, fright, grief, violence, anticipation, bad
news, business, contrariety, disappointment, excitement, fear, injuries,
hurry, indignation, injuries, accidents, joy, disappointed love, mortification,
scorn, sexual abuse, rape, shock.
Fear: accident, injury, death, apoplexy, crossing a street, public places,
train, ghost, faint, falling, imaginary, heart disease, insanity, killing,
misfortune, music, narrow places, outdoors, darkness, suffocation, tunnels,
busy streets, raids of air, people, subways, vertigo, future, health.
Anxiety: < walking, < open air, < chill, < fever, > drinking cold, <
company, >< motion, < pain, < deep inspiration, << rash, < pressure
chest, < mental exertion, < menses, < meditation, < vexation, < urination,
< stool, < heart problems, < toothache, < waking, < walking, < rest, <
noise.
Restless, fright.
Delusion: control over sense is lost.
Delusion: brain too small for skull; being doomed.
Dreams: anxious, fright, nightmares; fear, fright, anxiety.
Dreams: vivid, confused, anger, angry, business, children, clairvoyant,

Page 6
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

falling, from high places, fantastic, fasting, prophetic, historical, far from
home, impressive, lewd, lascivious, voluptuous, meditation, monomania,
shameful, sleeping in air, strange, vexatious, visionary.

General
Sensation: burning in internal parts; tingling, cold; numb.
Weather: << dry, cold weather, draught of cold air; chills, in waves,
alternates with heat.
Sweat: on uncovered parts; wants covers; drenching.
Time: sudden.
Desire: acids, beer; milk; thirsty, burning.
Food: < after ices.
Sleep: sleepless and nervous.

Body
Infection: influenza, acute.
Fever: high.
Vertigo: faintness; weakness.
Nervous: convulsions; trembling.
Head: headache, pain throbbing, heavy, aching, burning, congested, hot
band, boiling heat in brain; violent squeezing bursting, forehead, eyes;
crackling, throbbing, left forehead.
Eyes: dry, burning heat; shooting in eyeballs; glitter; stare; bleared; foreign
bodies in.
Nose: dry, burning heat; numb nose; nosebleed; runs hot water; coryza.
Face: red, hot, red cheeks, ghastly, anxious look; alternately red pale, <
rising; one cheek red and hot, other pale and cold.
Mouth: dry, burning heat; toothache, throbbing; taste bitter, water has a
bad taste.
Throat: larynx grasps larynx; < night, < drinking; laryngitis; croup with
fever; choking, < swallowing.
Lungs: dry, burning heat; respiration short, anxious, < sleep; cough dry,
hoarse, painful, or short, barking, ringing, or whistling, < every inspiration;
dyspnoea; pneumonia; pleurisy.
Heart: feels swollen; carditis; < sitting erect; palpitation, anxious; pain
down left arm; pulse fast, bounding, shaking, forcible, tumultuous, wiry,
very irritable; arterial tension
Chest: violent rushes of blood; stitches, oppression left chest.
Stomach: nausea; projectile vomiting, bilious, bloody.
Rectum: stools of pure blood; slimy, grass green, white, < hot days and cold
nights; dysentery; itching, sticking at anus.
Urinary: urine retained, scanty, red, bloody; urination painful, agonising;
cystitis; urethral chill; orchitis.

Page 7
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Female: menses suddenly suppressed; < menopause, parturition, uterus

prolapse.
Back: back, sacrum feel bruised.
Limbs: red finger-tips; powerless legs; red, shining swelling; dry, burning
heat, palms, > uncovering.
Skin: dry; hot; as if ice water on it; miliary eruptions; formication.

A state of fear, anxiety; anguish of mind and body. Physical and mental
restlessness, fright, is the most characteristic manifestation of Aconite.
Acute, sudden, and violent invasion, with fever, call for it. Does not want to
be touched. Sudden and great sinking of strength. Complaints and tension
caused by exposure to dry, cold weather, draught of cold air, checked
perspiration, also complaints from very hot weather, especially gastro-
intestinal disturbances, etc. First remedy in inflammations, inflammatory
fevers. Serous membranes and muscular tissues affected markedly. Burning
in internal parts; tingling, coldness and numbness. Influenza. Tension of
arteries; emotional and physical mental tension explain many symptoms.
When prescribing Aconite remember Aconite causes only functional
disturbance, no evidence that it can produce tissue change--its action is brief
and shows no periodicity. Its sphere is in the beginning of an acute disease
and not to be continued after pathological change comes. In Hyperaemia,
congestion not after exudation has set in. Influenza (Influenzin).

Aconitum anthora
Mind
Confusion.
Colour preference: 12A.

General
Weather: cold, external.
Time: < 11 pm.
Sleep: sleepy; deep, whole night.

Body
Head: pain pressing, aching, along longitudinal lines, sinus, right temporal
region.

Page 8
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Eyes: dilated pupil.

Face: pain; crawling.
Mouth: salivation, increased.
Heart: pulse slow.
Stomach: anguish, rumbling, fermentation; pain gnawing; heat, warmth;
belching.
Limbs: crawling; hand: paralysis, weakness.
Skin: dry, cool.

Aconitum cammarum
Names: Aconitum neomontanum, Aconitum intermedium; Aconitum
stoerckianum.

Mind
Apathy and indifference toward the world.
Thought and power of concentration disturbed.
Memory weak.
Sense of touch diminished.
Restless, < change of temperature, < night, obliges him to keep moving.
Depressed.
Confused.
Oppression and anxiety.
Concentration: difficult.
Rage, fury.
Apathy.

General
Weather: < change of temperature; < damp weather.
Time: < 11 pm.
Aversion: food, appetite diminished.
Desire: drinks, thirst.
Sleep: sleepy; frequent yawning, sleepless, restless, < until 4 am, wanders
about the room as if crazy.
Physical: > vomiting; > pressure, < walking.

Body
Energy: weak, prostrated, weary, < walking, > lying down.
Vertigo: < rising up, with flickering of vision; roaring in ears; pain in head
and face; nausea and great weakness.
Nervous: catalepsy; paralysis, half of body; twitching; numbness.

Page 9
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Head: headache, < bending forward, with vertigo and tinnitus.

Eyes: pupils dilated; vision diminished, near and far objects are confused;
sensitive, < light, > blinking.
Ears: ringing, with vertigo.
Face: black, blue; blue swollen lips; contracted; crawling, whole body; pain,
with tinnitus and vertigo; tensive, drawing sensation along course of nervus
trigeminus, which at first is shooting, wandering, very often intermittent;
becomes a continuous pain.
Mouth: fuzzy; formication, crawling, as from peppermint, tongue, lips and
face, extends to palate, tips of fingers and toes, whole body; paralysis of
tongue; salivation; taste diminished, sharp, peculiar.
Throat: constricted, contracted; violent stinging pain; voice hoarse and
rough.
Lungs: respiration slow, difficult.
Heart: pulse frequent, slow, sinks, irregular, small, weak, intermittent.
Chest: constricted.
Stomach: belching; violent belching; nausea; vomiting violent, ineffectual;
spasmodic contraction, pressure, cramp.
Abdomen: distended; rumblings; spasmodic contraction, constriction;
burning, as ants crawling.
Rectum: violent diarrhoea.
Urinary: urine scanty.
Male: erections and ejaculations without voluptuous dreams.
Limbs: constant movement, as if being tickled; pains in elbows, knees, hips,
< walking, > pressure; contraction; involuntary stretching; twitching of the
tendons.
Skin: cold, dry, rustling; icy cold; small papules, vesicles, small white and
yellowish, surrounded by an intensely red areola, filled with serous fluid,
painful, legs; crawling, whole body.

Aconitum ferox
English: Indian Aconite.
Names: Aconite virosum; Bisch; Bikh; Ativisha.

Mind
Energy: weakness, anxiety.
Great suffering, anxiety, unable to endure the suffering.
Depression.
Restless, < pain, < excitement, < anxiety, > motion, > walking around.
Fear: death, suffocation, paralysis of respiratory muscles.

Page 10
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

General
Sensation: burning pains
Weather: chills; icy coldness of the body, = wraps, = warmth.
Sweat: copious, < anxiety.

Body
Energy: weak, sick feeling; lassitude, weariness, suddenly.
Vertigo: dizzy.
Nervous: neuralgia; numb, < touch, as if he had on gloves, as if walking on
woollen carpets.
Head: pain in occiput and neck.
Eyes: blackness before eyes.
Nose: frequent sneezing; pain boring.
Face: pain, < excitement, < mental effort << emotional disturbance; numb,
painless, cheek, = pinching.
Mouth: sharp burning taste; violent burning, tongue, palate, lips, < hot
drinks, > cold water.
Throat: violent burning.
Lungs: dyspnoea, excessive, cardiac; breathing rapid, difficult, > half-sitting
up with head resting on palms of hands; Cheyne-Stokes breathing.
Stomach: vomiting, >> lying down; violent drawing pains.
Rectum: diarrhoea with pain.
Urinary: copious urine, scanty.
Back: violent drawing pain, sacral, extending over the whole abdomen.
Limbs: acute gout; trembling of whole body
Skin: formication, annoying, > cold, < excited, < change of temperature, <
motion.

Aconitum lycoctonum
Source: Wadstories 1, Enna Stallinga.

Mind
Teacher for small children.
Nurse.
Panic, confusion.

General
Weather: chilly, one side, < uncovering; cold alternating heat, succeeded by
sweat, < morning, shivering < stool.

Page 11
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Sweat: hands; face; < after cold, < after fever.

Desire: dainties, fruits, cabbage; tobacco; food, keen hunger, < heat;
drinks, thirst, < night.
Sleep: long; drowsy.

Body
Vertigo with nausea.
Head: heavy, as from a great weight; headache, hammering, sharp,
lancinating, compressing, in temples, across eyes, digging sensation in the
brain; pain in the head; pressing on the brain; as if a nail were driven into
the head, < moving it; pulsations in the head; shocks in the forehead; pain
pressing, vertex, occiput; pulling pain in the scalp when contracting it; pain
like rheumatism in scalp, < touch.
Eyes: heat; pain lancinating, sharp, inwards, outward; eyelids itching, pain
boring, pressing, difficult raising; fixed look; canthus, dry, smarting; bluish
circle around the eyes.
Ears: rough; beatings, < open air; purulent discharge; redness behind the
ears.
Nose: itching; sensitive; pulling sensation, lancinations; compression at the
root of the nose; skin cracked; discharge muco-purulent; coryza, dry, one
nostril.
Face: pale, shining face; light-brown colour; pain, bones; tension muscles;
numb jaw, like paralysis, > compressing it, > wine; pain of excoriation
round mouth; hard pimples, tuberculous, face and lips.
Mouth: taste clayey, astringent, blood, < coughing; pain burning, pressing,
tearing, upper teeth, < opening mouth; gums bluish, ulcerated gums.
Throat: tonsillitis; red tonsils; inflammation of cervical glands.
Lungs: difficult respiration; cough, < chill; watery expectoration.
Chest: swelling of the mammary glands; swelling of the axillary glands.
Stomach: weight; belching, risings acid, rancid, like rotten eggs, painful;
hiccough; vomit, mucus, yellowish, < getting out of bed, < drinking, < after
eating, with copious urination, with shivering, with vertigo.
Abdomen: pain bruised, tearing, compressing, lancinating, right
hypochondrium, hepatic region, < respiring, < drinking, < milk; anxiety in
the abdomen; beatings; abundant flatulence; colic, like that caused by
haemorrhoids.
Rectum: constipation; anus itching, pain contracting, cramping, tearing,
cracking, < stool; diarrhoea with violent cutting pain, < pork; whitish stools;
ineffectual straining, < night.
Urinary: urging, ineffectual; urine copious, scanty, colourless, hot, turbid
urine, white sediment.
Female: itching at vulva; menses foetid, acrid; leucorrhoea, viscid.
Back: shivering; neck seems to grow larger; swelling of the neck on one side

Page 12
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

only; pain pressing, nape of the neck; jerking in the region of the kidneys.
Limbs: numb, < sleep, < lying on it; swelling of the axillary glands; pain
pressing, lancinating, shoulder-joints; tearing pain in the elbow-joint;
stiffness in the joints of the elbow and wrist; hands feel full; hamstrings feel
shortened, < stretching; jerking in legs; sharp pain at instep, < standing;
drawing pain, with lassitude, < night, < getting up in the morning.
Skin: eruption, hot, red, painful spots on legs and toes; blotches, like
scarlatina, forearm and hands; itching ankles, < evening; goose bumps,
horripilation.

Aconitum septentrionale
English: Northern wolfsbane.
Botany: rocky hills of Sweden.

Mind
Slight confusion in the head.
Colour preference: 10B.

General
Sensation: pulsating.
Time: 11 pm.
Desire: food, hunger, ravenous, < morning.

Body
Head: pain aching, boring; scalp pressure, dull.
Eyes: lachrymation, burning.
Mouth: taste nauseous, sweet, tongue tip.
Heart: pulse reduced, small, irregular.
Stomach: fullness; disagreeable; unpleasant.
Abdomen: pain hypochondrium.

Page 13
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Materia Medica

MM- Aconitum Napellus -By John Henry CLARKE, M.D.

Aconitum Napellus.
Common Aconite. Monkshood. Wolfsbane. (Moist pastures and waste places in
mountainous districts, Central and Southern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, and
Central Asia.) N. O. Ranunculaceć. Tincture of whole plant with root when
beginning to flower.

Clinical.─Amaurosis. Anger. Apoplexy. Asthma. Blindness,

sudden. Bronchitis. Catalepsy. Catheter fever. Chest, affections of. Chicken-pox.
Cholera. Cholera infantum. Cold. Coldness. Consumption.
Convulsions. Cough. Croup. Cystitis. Dengue fever. Dentition. Diarrhśa. Dropsy.
Dysentery. Dysmenorrhśa. Ear, affections of. Enteritis. Erythema
nodosum. Excitement. Eye, affections of. Face, flushing of. Fear, effects
of. Fever. Fright, effects of. Glands swollen. Glossitis. Gonorrhśa.
Hćmorrhages. Hćmorrhoids; strangulated. Headache. Heart, affections of. Hip-joint,
diseased. Hodgkin's disease. Hyperpyrexia. Influenza. Jaundice. Joints, affections
of. Labour. Lactation. Laryngitis. Liver, inflammation of. Lumbago. Lungs, affections
of. Mania. Measles. Meningitis. Menstruation, disorders
of. Miliaria. Miscarriage. Mumps. Myalgia. Myelitis.
Nephritis. Neuralgia. Numbness. Śsophagus, inflammation of. Paralysis. Peritonitis.
Phlegmasia alba dolens. Pleurisy. Pleurodynia, Pneumonia. Pregnancy. Puerperal
fever. Purpura. Quinsy. Remittent fever. Roseola. Scarlatina. Shivering. Sleeplessness.
Smell, disorders of. Stiff-neck. Testicles, affections of. Tetanus. Tetany. Thirst. Throat,
affections of. Tongue, affections of. Toothache. Traumatic fever. Urethra, spasmodic
stricture of. Urethral fever. Urine, suppression of. Uterus, prolapsus of. Vaccination,
effects of. Vertigo. Whooping-cough. Yawning. Yellow fever.

Characteristics.─The Wolfsbane "grows in the damp and covered parts of almost

every mountainous country in north or middle of Europe, especially in the Jura,
Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden." Teste mentions that it has the reputation of
being much more poisonous to carnivorous animals than to the herbivora. This he
partly endorses, and it has recently been apparently confirmed by a vain attempt to
Page 14
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

poison an elephant with Aconitine in this country. A carrot was scraped out and
enough Aconitine to poison 2,000 men was put in. The elephant ate it readily, but
nothing at all happened, and three hours later a large dose of prussic-acid had to be
administered, which proved fatal in a short time.

Before Hahnemann's time Aconite had a reputation as a sudorific, and in cases of

rheumatism, sciatica, and tumours, but it was not till Hahnemann proved it that its
properties were really, understood. Aconite is more closely associated with the rise
and progress of homśopathy than any other member of the materia medica.
If Cinchona was the "Newton's apple" of the homśopathic discovery, Aconite was the
remedy by means of which Hahnemann was able to meet most of the conditions
which in his day were treated by blood-letting. It was Aconite more than any other
remedy which paved the way for the disappearance of blood-letting from general
medical practice. One of the deadliest and most rapidly acting of poisons, through
Hahnemann's discoveries has been turned into the best friend of the
nursery. Aconite in potencies above the 3rd is a perfectly safe medicine for any age.
Sensitive patients complain of its depressing action when repeated, and I have known
instances in which the characteristic prostration of mind and body has occurred
after Aconite had been given in the potencies. But such cases are exceptions, and are
not attended with danger when they do occur. The great majority of patients to
whom Aconite is given in the potencies experience nothing of the kind.

The rapidity of action of Aconite determines its appropriateness for conditions in

which the symptoms set in with great intensity, such as Asiatic cholera, certain fevers,
and acute inflammations. To this list may be added attacks of sudden blindness. But it
must not be supposed that the sphere of Aconite is limited to acute cases. When the
symptoms correspond it will cure cases of great chronicity─for example, cases of
indurated glands.

Dr. Hughes has acutely remarked that the condition to which Aconite is homśopathic
is one of tension; and this word gives the best idea of the action and sphere of Aconite.
There is emotional and mental tension, as shown in fright or fear and its
consequences, anxiety, and fear of death; tension of the systemic vessels, as in the
effects of a chill, Asiatic cholera, and hćmorrhages; muscular tension, as in tetanus;
tension of involuntary muscles, as in heart spasms, and tension of the semi-
involuntary muscular apparatus of respiration, as in asthma; and finally tension of the
special senses in heightened sensation and heightened sensitiveness to pain; in a
feeling of numbness in parts, as if bound tightly, and also a sensation of being tightly
bound in the limbs and in other parts. Hence it is that Aconite in its therapeutic action
corresponds to the effects of a number of conditions which excite a state of tension.
Plethora may be classed under this head. Plethoric persons of a lively character,
bilious and nervous constitutions, high colour, brown or black hair, are specially
Page 15
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

suited to Acon. Active, sanguineous congestions of all kinds, especially those

following chill. Guernsey puts it in another way: "The pure and fully developed blood
globule, in its most perfect type, when diseased, has a great affinity for Acon. When
the blood globules are disorganised it is seldom indicated. We think of Acon. in
sudden inflammation, especially if caused by cold, dry air, suppressing exhalations of
the body." Teste relates a remarkable case of an Englishman who had been obliged to
take a long sleigh journey in North Russia in midwinter, who suffered thereafter for
two years from violent paroxysms of palpitation and acute stitching pains in the heart
region, threatening cerebral apoplexy. Aneurism had been diagnosed by leading
physicians in England and on the Continent. Teste localised the affection to neurosis
or spasm of the pectoralis major muscle, and proved his diagnosis by promptly curing
it with Acon. The keen, cutting winds of the mountains amongst which the plant
flourishes give the signature of this remedial action.

There are not many drugs which have causation so strongly marked among their
characteristics. Chill, fright, injury, or surgical operation─the effects of these will be
met in large majority of cases by Acon., the timely administration of which will ward
off serious results.

The reaction from the primary effect of chill gives another characteristic
of Acon.─that of fever. With the Acon. fever there are: Restlessness and tossing about,
and the tension state is evidenced still in the anxiety with which it is accompanied,
sometimes amounting to fear of death. The mental exaltation sometimes goes so far as
to the predicting of the day and hour of death. Clairvoyance. Extreme sensitiveness to
light and sound and all sensations including pain. When the sickness is borne with
calmness and patience Acon. is not likely to be required. It was the feverish
restlessness of the Acon. provings that led Hahnemann to infer its homśopathicity to
so many fever states; and it is the presence of this restlessness, anxiety, fear, and
exalted sensibility which are its leading indications in cases of all kinds.

Some characteristics of Acon. are the following: Active hćmorrhages in stout,

plethoric people. Passes almost pure blood by stool. In hćmoptysis the blood comes
up with great ease by hemming and coughing, bright red in large quantities, from
cold, dry winds, with great fear, anxiety, and palpitation. Every inspiration increases
the cough. After the cough tingling sensation in chest. Unquenchable thirst:
everything tastes bitter, except water (Chi. everything, including water). In croup the
child grasps the throat with every coughing fit. Coldness, numbness, and tingling
characterise the paralyses and neuroses of Acon. Facial paralysis from exposure to
cold, dry winds. The fear and apprehension of Acon. is shown in dread of crossing
streets. There is intolerance of music. Some curious symptoms are: Imagines some
part of body is deformed. Imagine they do all their thinking from the stomach.
Predicts the hour of death (clairvoyance).
Page 16
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Acon. is one of the great pain remedies, vying with Cham. and Coffea in the intensity
of the pain it causes. Pains are intolerable, driving to desperation. The pains of Acon.
are tearing, cutting; are attended with restlessness; accompanied by numbness,
tingling, or formication. Acon. cannot bear the pain, cannot bear to be touched, cannot
bear to be covered. The toothache of Acon. is one-sided, with red cheek on same side.

Guernsey gives the following excellent directions: "If a child is suffering from a
watery diarrhśa, is crying and complaining very much, biting his fists and is
sleepless, Acon. will usually settle this trouble in a short time. The disturbed condition
of the mind will cease and quiet sleep will follow. The mother will now remark:
"Doctor, he is all right, except his bowels, and they are as bad as ever." Now, do not
give another remedy, but wait and see if Acon. will not complete the cure by itself."
Again: Scanty, red, and hot urine, arising from taking cold, especially in children. The
child screams and appears to be in great pain because it cannot urinate. Acon. will
ease the pain, quiet the child, and the urine will flow some time after. In adults,
incontinence of urine will sometimes be relieved by Acon.

There is a great and sudden sinking of strength; fainting on attempting to get up; with
anxiety, restlessness, numbness, tingling, formication.

Acon. has a very wide sphere of usefulness in affections of the eye. Inflammation, of
many kinds, from cold, injury, dust, surgical operations, scrofulous inflammation with
enlarged glands, all come within its range. Some remarkable cases of sudden
blindness have been cured by it. Hirsch of Prague records two such cases, one in a
man of thirty, who went to bed well, having walked home in rough and stormy
weather after spending the evening in a hot room. Acon. 3 was given, and the
following night he perspired freely, and in the morning his sight was thoroughly
restored. Hirsch himself suddenly lost his sight whilst bathing in hot weather. He
took Acon. 3 in water as he had given it to his patient. In two hours he began to
perspire, and after a six-hours' sleep awoke well. Lippe has recorded the case of a lady
whom he found much distressed, anxious, fearing paralysis. In her usual, health she
had taken a full dinner, and when reading afterwards, the letters danced before her
eyes, and the print became blurred; then face and nose became numb; pulse small, 120
a minute. One dose Acon. c.m. (Fincke) was given. The numbness disappeared in half
an hour; Pulse 72; the sight was perfect when she closed either eye, but everything
looked indistinct when she kept both open. This symptom disappeared next morning;
a slight lightness of the head remaining that day.

The time of the aggravation of Acon. symptoms is chiefly night and about
midnight. Heat, as well as cold, is injurious to the Acon. patient; sunstroke is among
the conditions which call for it; and Acon. will cure many headaches caused by
exposure to the sun, and also sun-erythema. Headaches are generally > in open
Page 17
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

air, < in warm room; toothache and cough < in open air. > From uncovering. Warm
room < chill; in fever, the bed is intolerable; he wants to uncover. Sweat on affected
or covered parts. There is < from wine or stimulants; < from drinking (any kind of
liquid). Rest > the symptoms generally, but during the night the pains are intolerable,
limbs feel tired and rigors are worse. Lying relieves headache and vertigo, and
aggravates other complaints. Lying on back > cough and stitches in chest; lying on
side < stitches in chest and cough: the cheek lain on sweats. Rising from a
seat = vertigo. Vertigo, pallor, faintness on sitting up in bed. Bending double > colic
and dysmenorrhśa pain. Motion < pains in muscles, joints, and stiffness.

Relations.─Aconitum napellus is related in its action to the other Aconites and to

Aconitinum, and also to the Ranunculaceć, Actća rac., Actća spic., Pćon., Podoph.,
Ranunculus, Staph. Teste places in the Aconite group: Coccul., Cham., Dulc., Cannab.
i., Con. But he admits that the relationship is not close, and that Acon. is really
without analogues. It is antidoted by: Acet. ac., Alcohol, Paris. It antidotes: Bell.,
Cham., Coff., Nux v., Pet., Sep., Spo., Sul. It is often indicated after: Arn., Coff., Sul.,
Verat. It is complementary to: Coff. (in fever, sleeplessness, intolerance of pain); Arn.
(bruises, injury to eye); Sul. It relieves ailments from: Act. rac., Cham., Coff., Nux v.,
Pet., Sep., Sul. Abuse of Acon. calls for Sul. Acon. should be compared with Stram.
and Op. in effects of fright; and with Sul. in most of its symptoms. Sul. is the chronic
of Acon.; it will often complete an action that Acon. begins, and will cure cases in
which Acon. is apparently indicated but fails to relieve. Compare also: Pul., Lyc.,
Sec., and Camph. (> from uncovering). Hep. and Coff. (intolerance of pain). Chi.
(white stool). Gels. (effects of bad news, fright, anger). Nux and Bry. (diarrhśa from
anger). Bry. (effects of cold, dry winds).

Causation.─Fear. Fright. Chill. Cold, dry winds. Heat; especially of sun. Injury.
Surgical operation. Shock.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Great agitation and tossing of the body with anguish, inconsolable

irritability, cries, tears, groans, complaints, and reproaches.─Sensitive
irritability.─Fearful anticipations of approaching death; predicts the day he is to
die.─Sadness.─Presentiments, as if in a state of clairvoyance.─Anthropophobia and
misanthropy; has no affection for anybody.─Maliciousness.─A strong disposition to
be angry, to be frightened, and to quarrel.─The least noise, even music, appears
insupportable.─Humour changeable; at one time sad, depressed, irritable, and
despairing; at another time gay, excited, full of hope, and disposed to sing and
dance.─Vexed at trifles; takes every joke in bad part.─Dislike to talk; answers
laconically.─Alternate paroxysms of laughter and tears.─Great, inconsolable
anxiety.─Anxiety respecting one's malady, and despair of a cure.─Fear of
Page 18
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

spectres.─Fear of the dark.─Disposition to run away from one's bed.─Mind, as it

were, paralysed, with incapability of reflection, and a sensation as if all the intellectual
functions were performed in the region of the stomach.─Paroxysms of folly and
madness.─Unsteadiness of ideas.─In the delirium is unhappiness, worry, despair and
raving, with expression of fear upon the countenance; but there is rarely
unconsciousness.─Delirium, chiefly at night; with ecstasy.─Weakness of
memory.─Ailments from fear, fright, vexation.

2. Head.─Head affected, as if the brain was nailed up, principally in the heat of a
room.─Vertigo, particularly on rising from bed, or else on getting up from one's seat,
on stooping, on moving or shaking the head, and often with a sensation of intoxication
or dizziness in the head, loss of consciousness, dimness of the eyes; nausea, and
sensation of weakness at the pit of the stomach.─Vertigo, with inclination to fall to r.
side.─Vanishing of sight; bleeding of the nose.─Sensation, as though the brain were
rolling loosely id the skull; increased by the least motion, and even by speaking and
drinking.─Pain in the head, with inclination to vomit, also vomiting.─Head, as if
bruised, with sensation of bruising in the limbs.─Stupefying pain in the head with
sensation of compression and drawing together as from cramp, principally in the
forehead and at root of the nose.─Weight and fulness in the forehead and in the
temples, with expansive pressure, as if everything was going to issue forth through
them, chiefly on stooping forward.─Feeling as of a board before forehead.─Shooting,
blows and beatings in the head.─Drawing cephalalgia, sometimes semi-
lateral.─Sensation as if a ball were mounting in the head, and spreading a coolness
over it.─Congestion of blood in the head, with heat and redness of face, or with a
sensation of heat in the brain, sweat on a shrivelled skin, and paleness in the
face.─Sensation of heat in the head, which perspires, with pale face.─Inflammation of
the brain.─Sensation of fulness and heaviness in the forehead, with the sensation as if
the whole brain would start out of the eyes, with nausea and giddiness, aggravated by
talking and from motion.─Heat and ebullition in the head, as if there were boiling
water in the brain.─A roaring and cracking in the head.─Sensation in the vertex, as if
dragged by the hair.─Sensation as if the hair were standing on end all over the
head.─Pain in the head, as if in consequence of cold or suppressed perspiration, with a
buzzing in the ears, cold in the head and colic.─Aggravation of the pains in the head
by movement, by speaking, by rising from a recumbent position, and by drinking;
relief experienced in the open air.

3. Eyes.─Eyes red and inflamed, with deep redness of the vessels, and intolerable
pains.─Profuse lachrymation.─Heat and burning in the eyes, with pressive and
shooting pains, esp. on moving the balls.─Swelling of the eyes.─Dilated pupils.─Lids
feel dry, hard, heavy; sensitive to air.─Red, hard swelling of the lids.─Eyes sparkling,
convulsed, and prominent.─Look fixed.─Cannot bear the reflection of the sun from

Page 19
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

the snow; it causes specks, sparks, and scintillations to dance before the
eyes.─Excessive photophobia; or a strong desire for light.─Black spots and mist
before the eyes.─Disturbed by flickering; fears he may touch others passing
by.─Vision as if through a veil; difficult to distinguish faces; with anxiety and
vertigo.─Sudden attacks of blindness.─A sensation of drawing in the eyelids with
drowsiness.─Ophthalmia, very painful, with blear-eyedness, or from foreign bodies
having come into the eyes (dust, sparks); from operations.

4. Ears.─Tingling and buzzing in the ears.─Tickling and sharp pain in the

ears.─Sensation as if something was placed before the ears.─Excessive sensibility of
hearing; all noise is intolerable.─Music goes through every limb; makes her
sad.─Tearing (l. ear). Roaring in the ears.

5. Nose.─Stunning compression or cramp at the root of the nose.─Bleeding at the

nose; bright red; esp. in plethoric persons.─Excessive sensibility of smelling, esp. for
unpleasant odours.─Violent sneezing, with pain in the abdomen, and in the l.
side.─Coryza, with catarrh, pain in the head, buzzing in the ears and colic.─Coryza
caused by cold, dry winds.─Checked coryza with headache; > in open air, < from
talking.─Fluent coryza, frequent sneezing; dripping of a clear, hot water; fluent
mornings.

6. Face.─Anxious expression; frightened.─Face bloated, hot, and red, or bluish; or

alternately red and pale; yellow.─On rising, the face, previously red, assumes a deadly
paleness; afterwards becomes red.─Red and pale alternately.─Redness of one cheek,
with paleness of the other, or red spots on both cheeks.─Sweat on the forehead, upper
lip, and on the cheek which has pressed the pillow.─Distortion of features.─Crawling
pain and sensation of swelling in the cheeks.─Tense drawing in trigeminus nerve,
then shooting, wandering, intermittent, then constant pain, sometimes pressure.─Pain,
as of ulceration, in the cheek-bones.─Semi-lateral prosopalgia, with swelling of the
lower jaw.─Lips black and dry, peeling off.─Tingling in the cheeks.─Burning,
tingling, and shooting pains, with successive drawing in the jaws.─Dropping of
jaws.─Trismus.

7. Teeth.─Lancinating shocks or throbbing pains in the teeth, often with congestion

of blood towards the head, and heat in the face.─Toothache from cold, with throbbing
in one side of the face, intense redness of the cheek, and great restlessness.─Grinding
teeth.

8. Mouth.─Sensation of dryness, or dryness in the mouth and on the tongue.─Tongue

white.─Coated, or thick yellow-white.─Itching, prickings and burning sensation in the
tongue; with accumulation of saliva in the mouth.─Paralysis of the
tongue.─Numbness of tongue; also about lips.─Speech tremulous and

Page 20
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

stammering.─Pain, as of excoriation, in the orifices of the salivary ducts, as if they

were ulcerated.─Trismus, with salivation.─Uvula feels elongated and coming in
contact with tongue.

9. Throat.─Pain in the throat, with deep redness of the parts affected, and difficult
deglutition.─Tingling in the śsophagus.─Scraping, tingling sensation of strangling,
burning and pricking in the throat, chiefly in swallowing.─Acute inflammation of the
throat (palate, tonsils and fauces) with high fever, dark redness of the parts, burning
and stinging in the fauces.─Burning and numbness in throat; throat almost
insensible.─Pricking, burning in throat and along Eustachian tubes, compelling
swallowing.─Sensation of contraction in the throat, as if caused by acrid
substances.─Stinging in the throat when swallowing and coughing.─Almost entire
inability to swallow, with hoarseness.

10. Appetite.─Taste in the mouth bitter; or putrid.─All kinds of food and liquids,
except water, tasting bitter.─Burning and unquenchable thirst; sometimes with a
desire for beer. Excessive hunger and thirst, but eats slowly.─Generally < from
drinking.─Gastric catarrh from drinking ice-water when over-
heated.─Generally > from cold drink, esp. anxiety.─Loss of appetite and a distaste for
food.─Beer lies heavy on the stomach.─Desires: wine; brandy; beer; bitter
drinks.─Wine generally >.

11. Stomach.─Hiccough.─Eructations of wind, and abortive risings in the

throat.─Flow of water from the stomach, as in water-brash, with nausea.─Inclination
to vomit, as after having eaten something sweetish or fat.─Bilious vomitings,
greenish, or mucous and bloody.─Vomiting of pure blood.─Vomiting of bloody
mucus, or of what has been drunk, followed by thirst.─Gagging and
retching.─Vomiting of lumbrices.─Vomiting, with nausea and thirst, heat, profuse
perspiration and increased micturition.─Pains in the stomach after eating or
drinking.─Sensation of swelling, tension, and pressure as of a weight in the precordial
region and in the stomach, sometimes with difficult respiration.─Pressure in the
stomach and pit of the stomach, as from a hard stone.─Pit of stomach sore to touch
and meteorismic.─Sensation of contraction in stomach, as is from acrid substances.

12. Abdomen.─Constriction, tension and pressure in the hypochondriac region,

sometimes with fulness and a sensation of weight.─Burning pain, shootings, stinging
and pressure in the hepatic region, with difficult respiration.─Painful sensibility to
touch in the region of the liver.─Inflammation and sensation of soreness in the
liver.─Pressure in the region of the liver, with obstruction of breathing.─Jaundice: of
newborn; from fright; from chill.─Drawing pains in the abdomen while in a crouching
posture (as when at stool).─Constriction, pinchings and burning in the umbilical
region, sometimes with retraction of the navel.─Unbearable cutting pains in the
Page 21
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

morning while in bed.─Tension and painful throbbing in the abdomen, principally in

the epigastrium.─Swelling of the abdomen as in ascites.─Painful sensibility of the
abdomen to the touch, and to the least movement.─Flatulent colic, chiefly at night,
and pressure, tension, and borborygmus, with rumbling in the abdomen.

13. Stool and Anus.─Suppression of stools.─Frequent, soft, small stools, with

tenesmus.─Loose, watery stools.─Stools like chopped spinach.─White stools, with
dark red urine.─Choleraic discharges with collapse, deathly anxiety, and
restlessness.─Involuntary stools, from paralysis of the anus.─Constipation; clay-
coloured stools.─Nausea and sweating before and after loose stools.─Pains in the
rectum.─Violent pain in rectum, with chill and fever, inflammation, tenesmus, bloody
discharges (dysentery).─Pressure and pricking in the anus.─Bleeding piles, with heat
and sharp stitches; blood bright.─Diarrhśa, with flux of urine and colic.─Sensation as
of a warm fluid escaping from anus.

14. Urinary Organs.─Suppression of urine, with pressure in the bladder and pains in
the loins.─A frequent desire to discharge urine, accompanied by anxiety and
pain.─Flow of urine, with sweat, diarrhśa, and colic.─Involuntary emission of urine,
from relaxation of the neck of the bladder.─Enuresis, with thirst.─Urine scanty,
burning, deep red, and with a sediment of a brick colour (arising from taking cold,
esp. in children); suppression of, from cold.─Bloody sediment in the urine.─Scanty,
red, hot urine, without sediment.─Heat and tenesmus in the neck of the bladder.

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Venereal inclination alternately increased and

diminished.─Amorous paroxysms.─Smarting in the parts.─Contusion like pains in
the testicles.─Testicles feel swollen, hard, as if surcharged with
semen.─Orchitis.─Gonorrhśa, first stage.─Itching in the prepuce.─Shootings and
pinchings in the glans when making water.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Menses too abundant and too protracted.─Suppressed

menstruation from fright; from cold feet.─After-pains too painful and too
protracted.─Milk fever (with delirium).─Puerperal peritonitis.─Maniacal fury on the
appearance of the menses.─Stitching pains move to r. of fundus uteri; sharp shooting
pains, abdomen exceedingly sensitive.─Ovaritis from suddenly checked menstrual
flow.─Labour-like pressing in womb (dysmenorrhśa).─Uterine hćmorrhage; active,
much excitability; giddy, cannot sit up; fear of death.─Vagina dry, hot,
sensitive.─Leucorrhśa, copious, tenacious, yellow.─Increase of milk in breasts.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Sensation of numbness in the trachea.─Attacks of

paralysis in the epiglottis, with a tendency to choking.─Pain in the larynx.─Larynx
sensitive to touch and to the inspired air, as if denuded.─Laryngeal complaints after
straining the voice.─A croaking voice.─A constant desire to cough, produced by an

Page 22
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

irritation or a tickling in the larynx.─Inflammation of larynx and bronchia.─Cough

from having drunk or smoked.─Short and dry cough, principally at night.─A
convulsive cough, hoarse or croaking, sometimes with danger of suffocation, and
constriction of the larynx.─Angina membranacea, with dry cough and quick
breathing.─Croup.─Expectoration of thick and whitish matter, or of bloody mucus, or
spitting of blood while coughing.─Shootings and pains in the chest on
coughing.─Cough, with stitches in the chest or small of the back.─Cough: < after
eating or drinking; when lying; evening; night, more after 12; during sleep; from
tobacco smoke; from vexation, esp., fright; when over-heated; from dry, cold winds;
from walking in open air; assuming upright position; from deep inspiration; from
speaking.

18. Chest.─Short breathing, chiefly during sleep, and on getting up.─Breathing

painful, anxious, and attended with groans, rapid and superficial, or full, noisy, and
with the mouth open.─Breathing slow during sleep.─Breath hot.─Breath
fetid.─Constriction and anxious oppression of the chest, with difficulty of
breathing.─Asthma of Millar.─Attack of suffocation, with anxiety.─Sensation of
heaviness and of compression at the chest.─Painful pricking in the chest, chiefly when
breathing, coughing, and moving (even the arms).─Stitches through the chest and
side, esp. when breathing and coughing.─Prickings in the side, with a lachrymose and
plaintive humour, soothed, in some degree, by lying on the back. Pleurisy and
pneumonia, esp. with great heat, much thirst, dry cough and great nervous excitability,
only somewhat relieved when lying on the back.─Itching in the chest.─Pains as of a
bruise in the sternum and in the sides.─Sensation of anguish in the chest, which
interrupts respiration.

19. Heart.─Palpitation of the heart, with great anxiety, heat of body, chiefly in the
face, and great weariness in the limbs.─Shootings in the region of the heart when
moving or going upstairs.─Sensation of compression and blows in the region of the
heart.─Inflammation of the heart.─Chronic diseases of the heart, with continuous
pressure in the l. side of the chest, oppressed breathing when moving fast and
ascending steps, stitches in the region of the heart, congestions to the head; attacks of
fainting and tingling in the fingers.─Fainting with tingling.─Pulse full, strong, hard;
slow, feeble; threadlike with anxiety; quick, hard, small.

20. Neck and Back.─Weakness and pain, as from a bruise in the nape of the
neck.─Pain, as if from a bruise, in the back and loins.─Painful stiffness in the nape of
the neck, the loins, and the hip joints.─Pain, as of boring in the back and in the loins,
tingling, and of pricking in the back.

22. Upper Limbs.─Pain, as from a bruise, and weakness in the arms, principally in
the shoulders, with swelling.─Heaviness in the arms, with numbness in the
Page 23
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

fingers.─Numbness of the left arm; he can scarcely move the hand.─Paralytic

weakness of the arm and hand, esp. in writing.─A sensation of drawing in the
arms.─Hands dead.─Swelling of the hands.─Heat in the hands with cold in the
feet.─Cool sweat on the palms of the hands.─Icy coldness of the hands.─Tingling in
the fingers, particularly when writing.─Inflammatory swelling of the elbow, with
numbness, and a paralytic state of the fingers.

23. Lower Limbs.─Pain, as from a bruise in the hip joints, esp. after having slept, or
having lain down for some time.─A sensation of drawing with paralytic weakness in
the legs.─Shooting pain in the hip joint, even to the knee; pain which forces a cry at
every step.─Want of strength and of stability in the joints of the hip and of the
knee.─Drawing, tearing pains in the knee-joint.─Inflammatory swelling of the knee,
with shining redness, shooting pains, stiffness, and great sensibility to
touch.─Sensation of stiffness in the legs on moving them.─Pain in the insteps, with
despair and fear of death.─Numbness in the legs.─Heaviness of the feet.─Cold in the
feet, chiefly in the toes, and sweat on the soles of the feet.─Tingling, commencing in
feet and spreading upwards.

24. Generalities.─Shooting, or rheumatic pains, which are reproduced by wine or

other stimulants.─Sufferings which, particularly at night, seem unbearable, and which
generally disappear in a sitting posture.─Attacks of pain with thirst and redness of the
cheeks.─Distressing sensibility of body, and esp. of the parts affected, on every
movement, and on the slightest touch.─Pain as from a bruise, and sensation of
heaviness in all the limbs.─A sensation of drawing with paralytic weakness in the
arms and legs.─Failure of strength and stability, pains and cracking in the joints,
principally of the legs.─Rapid and general decay of strength.─Fainting, esp. when
rising, with paleness of the cheeks, which were red when lying.─Attacks of fainting,
chiefly on rising from a recumbent posture, and sometimes with congestion of blood
in the head, buzzing in the ears, deadly paleness of countenance, and
shuddering.─Congestions (head, chest, heart).─Uneasiness, as if from suppressed
perspiration, or in consequence of a chill, with pain in the head, buzzing in the ears,
colic and cold in the head.─Sensation of cold and of stagnation of blood in all the
vessels.─Shaking in the limbs.─Cataleptic attack, with cries, grinding of the teeth,
and hiccough; rigor of the body and loud lamentations.─Tetanus.─Swelling of the
whole body, which assumes a blackish colour.

25. Skin.─Crawling sensation in the skin, with itching and desquamation, principally
in the parts affected.─Skin dry and burning.─Swelling and burning heat of wounded
parts.─Yellow face.─Yellowish colour of the skin.─Red, hot, swollen and shining
skin with violent pain.─Shootings, with a sensation of excoriation here and
there.─Spots similar to flea-bites on the hands, on the body, &c.─Small pimples, red
and broad, attended by itching.─Morbilli.─Rash of children.─Purpura miliaris.
Page 24
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

26. Sleep.─Great desire to sleep, even while walking, and principally after
dinner.─Drowsiness, with anxious thoughts and rapid respiration.─Confused reveries,
in which the eyes are closed, without sleeping.─Sleeplessness from anxiety, with
constant agitation and tossing.─Sleeplessness, with restlessness (eyes closed) and
constant tossing about.─Startings in sleep.─Anxious dreams, with
nightmare.─Anxious dreams, with much talking and moving while sleeping.─Dreams
with a sort of clairvoyance.─Light sleep.─Impossibility of lying on the side.─During
sleep, lying on the back, with the hand under the head; or in a sitting posture, with the
head inclined forward.

27. Fever.─Dry, burning heat, with extreme thirst, sometimes (esp. at the beginning
of the disease), preceded by shiverings, with trembling.─Heat, chiefly in the head and
face, with redness of the cheeks, shuddering over the entire body, oppressive
headache, temper lachrymose, disposed to complaining and to contradiction; or, a
sensation of heat in the whole body, with redness of the cheeks, pain in the head on
turning the eyes, and levity of mind.─Shivering, if uncovered in the least while the
heat exists.─Cold over the whole body with internal heat, forehead cold, and tips of
the ears hot; or with redness of cheeks and pains in the limbs; or with stiffness of the
whole body, heat and redness of one cheek, and coldness and paleness of the other;
eyes open and fixed, pupils contracted, and dilating with difficulty.─Sensation of
coldness in the blood vessels.─Cold and shivering in the fingers, followed by cramps
in the calves of the legs and in the soles of the feet.─Heat of face, with mournful and
despairing thoughts, and an inclination to vomit, preceded by cold and shiverings in
the feet and hands.─Shuddering runs up from the feet to the chest.─Frequent
shudderings, with burning heat and dryness of the skin.─Inflammatory fevers and
inflammations, with much heat, dry, burning skin, violent thirst, red face, or alternate
red and pale face, nervous excitability, groaning and agonised tossing about, shortness
of breath, and congestion to the head.─Continual sweat, esp. on parts that are
covered.─Sour sweat.─Pulse hard, frequent, and accelerated; full, sometimes
intermitting; when slow, almost imperceptible (threadlike).

MM- ACONITUM ANTHORA _- By TIMOTHY F. ALLEN, A.M., M.D.

ACONITUM ANTHORA, L.

Page 25
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Nat. order, Ranunculaceæ. Common name, Eisenhut. Habitat, Subalpine ranges in

Lower Austria, etc. Preparation, Extract from the plant in flower, and also from the
root.

This species possesses less acrid principles than any other.

Prover, Heinrich (0.1 gramme). (Reil and Hoppe, Journal f. Pharm., Tox., u. Thera., p.
1, 388.)

Pulse diminished several beats within the first two hours; sensation of warmth in the
stomach; frequent eructations; a cool and dry skin; a marked increase of saliva
(extract from the plant).

The extract from the root produced similar symptoms, with the addition of a slight
crawling in the face and extremities; confusion of the head; a sensation from time to
time of a pressive headache along the course of the longitudinal sinus and in the right
temporal region; slightly dilated pupil; decided sleepiness, which caused a deep sleep
the whole night through. The next day entirely well.

MM- Aconitum Cammarum.--By John Henry CLARKE, M.D.

Aconitum Cammarum.
A. cammarum, Linn. (includes A. neomontanum, Willd.; A. intermedium, D. C.,
and A. stoerckianum, Reich.). N. O. Ranunculaceæ. Tincture of root.

Clinical.─Catalepsy. Eruption. Headache. Neuralgia. Pollutions. Salivation. Tongue,

paralysis of. Vomiting.

Characteristics.─The main symptoms, of Aconitine are reproduced in A. camm.

Formication begins on tongue and lips and spreads to face and thence over whole
body; with this are distortion of features and dry skin. There is headache < by bending
body forward; and faceache accompanied by tinnitus aurium and vertigo. Walking
causes weariness and, if continued, causes pains in elbows, knees, and hips. Violent
eructations; inclination to vomit without vomiting; spasmodic contraction of stomach
and abdominal muscles. Great sensitiveness to light. Erections and pollutions without
voluptuous dreams. On lower extremities small papules and vesicles, filled with
serous fluid, very painful. Memory weakened; sense of touch diminished.

Page 26
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

A. neomont. produced: Peculiar sharp taste followed by violent shooting pains from
lips to stomach. The eructations and rumbling in bowels of the alkaloid were
reproduced, but in addition the mucous membrane of the mouth was red, studded with
small whitish yellow vesicles surrounded with bright red areola; salivation came on.
Pupils, at first mobile, became persistently dilated; vision dim; unable to look at
highly illuminated objects without winking; near and distant objects seem to swim.
Extreme restlessness; it seems as if it were a tickling which impels him to constant
movement; > in equable temperature, < on entering warm air from cold and vice
versâ. Apathetic, indifferent to all the world. Sleep disturbed or impossible.
Vomiting > all symptoms.

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Rage.─Fear.─Apathy and indifference.─Thought and power of

concentration disturbed.─Memory weak.

6. Face.─Blackish blue colour of face; blue swollen lips.─Most remarkable sensation

of contraction of face.

8. Mouth.─Paralysis of tongue.─Salivation.─Fuzzy sensation where the crawling

was.─Taste and sensation diminished.

12. Abdomen.─Burning in abdomen and sensation of ants crawling round in it.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Voice hoarse and rough.─Respiration slow, difficult, with

sensation as if chest and throat constricted.

19. Heart.─Pulse frequent; afterwards depressed; slow; irregular; intermittent.

24. Generalities.─Subsultus tendinum.─Twitchings.─Catalepsy.

MM- Aconitum Ferox -By John Henry CLARKE, M.D.

Aconitum Ferox.

Page 27
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

A. ferox, Wall. A. virosum, Don. Bisch, or Bikh, Ativisha. (The most poisonous
species known, containing greatest proportion of Aconitine; from the Himalaya
Mountains.) N. O. Ranunculaceæ. Tincture of root.

Clinical.─Burning pains. Cheyne-Stokes breathing. Chill. Dyspnœa. Gastralgia.

Neuralgia. Numbness.

Characteristics.─A. ferox was proved by Dworzack, who also proved Aconitine. The
Ferox developed burning pains in greater intensity than the alkaloid; more intense
mental activity followed by greater depression. The Aconite note of unendurability of
suffering was marked. Anxiety and fear of suffocation from paralysis of respiratory
muscles; obliged to breathe half-sitting up with head resting on palms of hands. Cold
drinks >; sitting up >; warm food <; coffee >.

Relations.─Compare: Curare and Phosph. (respiratory paralysis; Cheyne-Stokes

breathing).

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Mind very active; sequence of ideas rapid; talked constantly, remembered

easily the minutest circumstances of his former experiment, compared them with
present one, and readily drew conclusions (6 h.). In intervals of relief from distressing
symptoms laughed and joked about his very comical condition; but when the
dyspnœa, anxiety, &c., returned, he could not seem to endure them, and abused
heartily Aconite and toxicology in general (4 to 6 h.).─Incapable of any mental work,
even the simplest addition; comprehension and understanding confused (2nd day).

8. Mouth.─Tongue almost insensible; feels like a piece of raw leather in mouth (6

h.).─Tongue covered with a thick yellowish-white fur.─Violent burning in mouth (in
two minutes), renewed by eating (2nd day); > by drinking cold water.

9. Throat.─Violent burning in pharynx.

11. Stomach.─Pressure in stomach with pain.─Warmth in stomach.─Violent drawing

pain in region of stomach and sacral region, soon spreading over whole
abdomen; < by pressure on epigastrium.─On pressing in stomach, an internal, dull
pressing pain.

12. Abdomen.─Rumbling in bowels (5 m.); constant gurgling (4 h.).

13. Stool.─Two half-watery, dark, not copious stools (2nd d.).

Page 28
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

14. Urinary Organs.─Frequent and copious evacuations of urine.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Dyspnœa increased to such a degree that he was obliged to

breathe half-sitting up, with head resting on palms of hands; constantly feared
suffocation from respiratory paralysis.

21. Limbs.─Gait tottering; remarkable weakness in lower extremities, esp. r.

24. Generalities.─Formication spread over whole body, least noticeable on parts that
had been cold; <, or excited by, change of temperature or motion. Having changed
from one nerve to another, reached its greatest severity from 7 to 7.30 p.m. It caused a
painful unrest so that he could not possibly lie quietly more than a few minutes.
Getting up set up all the train of symptoms, which were > immediately on lying
down.─Benumbed sensation, as if he had on gloves; on pinching cheeks no pain felt;
seemed to walk on woollen carpets (2nd, 3rd, and 4th d.).

26. Sleep.─Sleeplessness.─On waking, violent burning in mouth and throat, warmth

in stomach, dull sensation in head.

27. Fever.─Icy coldness of body (4 h.), objective and subjective, no amount of wraps
and external warmth relieved. Desire to get warm drove him to get out of bed and sit
near stove. Tottered to stove and warmth was pleasant, but vertigo, trembling,
oppression, and nausea ensued and compelled him to return to bed. This experience
was repeated.─Fierce heat (calor mordax) on forehead, cheek, and hands, with
sensation as if numerous glowing hot wires were stuck into him: > by perspiration (4
to 6 h.).

MM- Aconitum Lycoctonum -By John Henry CLARKE, M.D.

Aconitum Lycoctonum.
A. lycoctonum, Linn. A. telyphonum, Reich. Wolfsbane. N. O. Ranunculaceæ.
Tincture of fresh plant when coming into bloom. (The only aconite which does
not contain Aconitine.)

Clinical.─Breasts, inflammation of. Constipation. Diarrhœa. Glands, enlargement of.

Hodgkin's disease. Liver, disorders of. Pork, effects of. Strangury.

Characteristics.─The symptoms of A. lycoct., whilst resembling those of the other

aconites in some respects, show a marked absence of the cutaneous-nerve affections

Page 29
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

so prominent in their provings. The most notable symptoms are swelling of the
cervical, axillary, and mammary glands. I have used it with good effect in cases of
scrofulous glands, and even where Hodgkin's disease has been suspected. Diarrhœa
after eating pork. Itching is prominent in the proving: of eyes, nose, anus, vulva. The
skin of the nose is cracked. There is a cough leaving a taste of blood in the mouth. The
symptoms are < in afternoon (like Lycop.); < from mental exertion; < during
digestion, especially of pork, onions, and after wine.

Relations.─Compare: Cistus, Lap. alb., Con., Iod., Spo., Lyc., Carb. an.; Puls.
(effects of pork).

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Mania.─Ferocity.─Laughter.─Distraction.─Instability of ideas.─Dread of
work.

2. Head.─Vertigo with nausea.─Lancinating pain in head extending across

eyes.─Sensation as if a nail were driven into head when moving it.─Hammering in
temples.─Pain like rheumatism in scalp < by touch.

3. Eyes.─Lancinating pain in eyes from without inward.─Painfulness of lids.─Itching

in lids.─Pressure on lids and difficulty of raising them.─Smarting in canthi; dryness at
inner canthus.

4. Ears.─Purulent discharge from ears; redness behind them.

5. Nose.─Itching on nose; sensitiveness; lancinations.─Compression at root of

nose.─Skin of nose cracked.─Muco-purulent discharge from nose.

6. Face.─Face pale; shining.─Pain of excoriation round mouth.─Pain in facial

bones.─Tension in facial muscles.─Hard tuberculous pimples on face.─Pimples on
lips.─Skin of face becomes light brown.─Numbness of jaw, like incipient
paralysis, > by compression and by drinking wine.

7. Teeth.─Burning pain in upper teeth.─Pressing in teeth.─Tearing in lower teeth

when opening mouth.─Gums bluish; ulcerated.

8. Mouth.─Taste, clayey; astringent.

10. Appetite.─Strong relish for dainties, fruits, cabbage.─Increased relish for tobacco
in a smoker.─Aversion to food in general esp. fatty things and milk; they cause

Page 30
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

uneasiness.─Keen hunger very soon satisfied.─Constant thirst even when

drinking.─Burning thirst.─Thirst at night.

11. Stomach.─Risings: rancid; like rotten eggs, acid with weight on

stomach.─Painful eructations.─Hiccough.─Inclination to vomit after eating; with
shivering; with vertigo.─Vomiting: of mucus on getting out of bed; yellowish after
drinking; with copious urination.

12. Abdomen.─R. hypochondrium: bruised pain; tearing pain; starting.─When

breathing both hypochondria feel bruised. Sensation of compression referred to
diaphragm.─Anxiety; beatings in abdomen.─Lancinating pain after milk.

13. Stool.─Constipation; anus feels as if strongly contracted.─Diarrhœa, with violent

cutting after eating pork.─Whitish stools.─After stool, pain in anus as if there was a
crack there; shivering.─Cramp at anus.─Itching at anus.─Tenesmus during night.

14. Urinary Organs.─Desire to urinate with copious emissions.─Urging with

ineffectual efforts.─Urine: hot; turbid, depositing a white sediment.

16. Female Sexual Organs.─Itching at vulva.─Menstrual blood fetid.─Excoriation

of bend of thigh after menses.─Leucorrhœa: viscid.

17. Respiratory Organs.─Difficult respiration.─Slight cough with watery

expectoration.─After a slight chill, cough leaving a taste of, blood in the mouth.

18. Chest.─Swelling of the mammary glands.

20. Neck and Back.─Swelling of the cervical glands.─The neck seems to grow
larger.─Swelling of the neck on one side only.─Pressing pain at the nape of the
neck.─Shivering in the back.─Jerking in the region of the kidneys.

22. Upper Limbs.─Swelling of axillary glands.─Pressure; lancinating pains in

shoulder joints.─Tearing pain in elbow joints.─Stiffness in elbows and
wrists.─Sensation of fulness in hands.─Sweat on hands.

23. Lower Limbs.─On stretching legs ham-muscles feel as if much

shortened.─Jerking in legs.─Itching at ankles in evening.─Lancinating pain at instep
when standing.─Eruption of hot, red, slightly painful spots on legs and toes.

26. Sleep.─Drowsiness; he sleeps too long.─Aberration of hearing during

sleep.─During sleep, numbness of the parts he lies on.

Page 31
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

27. Fever.─Horripilation.─Chilliness of one side only as soon as he is uncovered.─In

morning external coldness with feeling of heat.─Coldness alternating with heat,
succeeded by sweat.─During heat, pale face, strong appetite, thirst, pain in bowels,
restlessness.─Sweat continues after fever.

MM- ACONITUM SEPTENTRIONALE _- By TIMOTHY F. ALLEN, A.M., M.D.

ACONITUM SEPTENTRIONALE, KOELLE.

This plant is a blue-flowered variety of Acon. lycoctonum, L., or a nearly allied
species; it is found on the rocky hills of Sweden (and in the north of
Europe). Preparation, The extract (obtained by digesting the root with rectified
spirits) has been proved.

Authority. Carl v. Schroff, Jr., gave one, two, and three decigrammes to Herr Krueg.

SYMPTOMS. ► Slight confusion of the head. ► Dull pressure in the

scalp. ► Unpleasant sensation in the stomach. ► Sense of fulness in the
stomach. ► Taste at first nauseous, became sweetish at the forepart and on the edges
of the tongue. ► Passage of clear urine. ► General sick feeling.

PULSE. ► Pulse (from one decigramme) reduced from 76 to 64. ► Pulse (from two
decigrammes) reduced from 66 to 60. ► Pulse (from three decigrammes) not altered
in frequency, but became Small and irregular.

MM- Aconitinum -By John Henry CLARKE, M.D.

Aconitinum.
Aconitine. Aconitia. C33 H45 NO12. An alkaloid obtained from the roots and stems
of Aconitum napellus. It is contained in all species of Aconite except A.
lycoctonum.

Page 32
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

[German Aconitine is amorphous; French Aconitine is crystalline, and 170 times

stronger than the German. Morson's "English Aconitine" is a secret preparation
believed to be made from A. Ferox. The alkaloid in A. Ferox differs somewhat from
ordinary Aconitine chemically, and is called pseudo-Aconitine. Aconitine of T. H.
Smith, of Edinburgh, is probably identical with Morson's. Symptoms from Morson's
are marked (M) in the Schema.]

Clinical.─Blindness. Chill. Convulsions. Deafness. Dyspnœa. Ears, noises in.

Hemicrania. Hydrophobia. Landry's paralysis. Liver, enlargement of. Neuralgia.
Œsophagus, spasms of. Spasms. Spleen, enlargement of. Tetanus. Tongue, affections
of. Trismus. Vomiting.

Characteristics.─Our knowledge of this alkaloid is chiefly derived from cases of

poisoning and over-dosing. The numbness, tingling, prickling and heat of
the Aconite provings are produced by the alkaloid, but with increased intensity. On
local application, first there is sensation of warmth, then of burning with sharp pains
and itching; finally numbness and anæsthesia. The symptoms often proceed from
below upwards: "A tingling, prickling sensation, running up leg to spine and head,
and tingling of fingers." "Ice-cold sensation creeps up from his feet." Fear of death,
anguish, intense chilliness; feeling of sickness; constricting burning sensation,
extending from mouth to stomach. Twitchings and spasms over whole body,
especially in face. All symptoms are > by vomiting. In one poisoning case "vomiting
recurred every two or three minutes, and was performed by a sudden jerking action of
abdominal muscles, accompanied by a loud shout, probably dependent on a sudden
contraction of the diaphragm. Every attempt to swallow was followed by the
spasmodic contractions So characteristic of hydrophobia, but they were not renewed
by the sight of water. The slightest touch renewed the spasms." Aconitine should be
helpful in cases of hydrophobia, whether of the convulsive or the paralytic kind. The
senses are disordered or lost-sight, hearing, smell. In one poisoning case the blindness
was coincident with sudden dilatation of the pupils, and sight partially returned as the
pupils contracted. A heavy feeling as of lead all over the body. All parts except head
and stomach feel as if filled with lead. Neuralgia of 5th nerve. Creeping on face with
feeling of swelling and tension. Pains in supraorbital nerve were especially prominent.
Post-mortem examinations show the spleen very much enlarged; posterior part of liver
dark and almost black. Kidneys hyperæmic.

The symptoms of Aconitine set in with great rapidity, and develop with extreme
intensity. If recovery occurs it is rapid and complete. There is relaxation of the limbs
and every exertion < the symptoms. < By mental exertion; by agitation. < By touch.
Erect position = nausea (M)

Relations.─See Acon. n. Hydrophobia symptoms, Bell., Canth., Hyo., Lach., Fagus.

Page 33
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

SYMPTOMS.

1. Mind.─Anguish; fear of death.─Intellect perfect, even vivid.─Flow of ideas

sluggish, long reflection impossible, power of attention impaired.─Feels like one
sleeping and dreaming.─Forgetfulness and trembling of limbs.

2. Head.─Vertigo and confusion, with ringing in ears; falls almost

immediately.─With giddiness, dimness of vision, and muscular weakness
(M).─Fulness in the head, with noises in the ears.─Head and faceache; often darting
pains in face, sometimes accompanied by vomiting.─(Hemicrania cured).─Weight
about head; unable to hold it up.

3. Eyes.─Strained feeling in eyes.─Pupils dilated (both from internal and external

use).─Complete blindness; accompanying dilatation of pupils, sight returning when
pupils contract.─Vision hazy, with giddiness and nausea (M).─Pupils insensible to
light.

4. Ears.─Sense of pressure in ears.─Roaring in ears.─Complete deafness.

6. Face.─Fulness in cheeks and temples gradually changing to painful sense of

tension, formication, and prickling.─Face tense and swollen.─Creepings in face and
forearms.─Peculiar drawing, stretching, pressing sensation in cheeks, upper jaws,
forehead─in short, through whole tract of trigeminus, increasing by degrees in
intensity, alternating with actual pain, which, at first occasional and fugitive, finally
became steady and severe.─Pain at temple and along course of supraorbital
nerve.─Darting pains in face accompanied by vomiting.─Beginning in fingers, then in
face, tonic contractions, trismus; after a while clonic convulsions over whole
body.─Eyes closed, lips dry and fissured, tongue stiff; felt chilly and as if dying;
breathing became rattling, moaning, quick.─Facies hippocratica.

8. Mouth.─Burning on tip of tongue and lips.─Burning, constricting, acrid, dry

sensation in mouth and fauces.─Tongue stiff.─Taste disagreeable and disgustingly
bitter.─Taste completely lost.─Taste impaired; teeth more sensitive when
biting.─Salivation.

9. Throat.─Burning anguish in throat.─Constriction and burning from mouth to

stomach.─Every attempt to swallow followed by spasms like hydrophobia but not
renewed by sight of water.─Difficulty of swallowing and a pain in back of neck and
behind jaws in parotid region, so that in eating he had to press back of neck with hand
(M).─Burning in gullet as if a hot coal were there (M).

Page 34
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

11. Stomach.─Eructations immediately.─Severe vomiting, which recurred every two

or three minutes and was performed by a sudden, jerking action of abdominal muscles
accompanied by a loud shout.─Nausea induced by erect position (M).─Vomiting
relieves all symptoms.─Warmth most marked in region of stomach.

12. Abdomen.─Rumbling in bowels (immediately in one case, two hours after dose
in another).─Sudden contraction of diaphragm.─Liver and spleen greatly enlarged.

14. Urinary Organs.─Copious diuresis.─Difficulty in voiding urine (M).─Dysuria

and occasionally retention with hypogastric pain (M).

15. Male Sexual Organs.─Nocturnal pollutions (unusual to prover).

17. Respiratory Organs.─Respiration difficult.─Oppressive anguish in precordial

region.─Sighing breathing.

19. Heart.─Pulse at first, on entering a warm room, more frequent, then sinks far
below normal, small, weak, intermittent.─Sounds of heart only heard at apex.

21. Limbs.─Weakness, trembling, burning, creeping, tingling, numbness of limbs.

24. Generalities.─Malaise; feebleness; muscular prostration.─Twitchings and

convulsions over whole body.─Heaviness as of lead all over body.

25. Skin.─General formication.

26. Sleep.─Somnolence.─Sleep disturbed.─Throws himself continually around in

bed.

27. Fever.─Surface cold, sweating, and quite pale.─Intense coldness.─Head and face
became suddenly warm; warmth extended over rest of body, was more intense in
region of stomach, and was accompanied by sweat.

Page 35
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

ACONITUM NAPELLUS -compares

Aconitum napellus is the monkshood. Aconite itself, means without dust. The
plant has been so named from the botanical fact that it grows on dry rocks,
with scarcely enough earth about to enable it to take root. This shows the
hardiness of the plant. It is called the monkshood because of the shape of
the flowers, which turn over and give the appearance of a hood thrown over
the head. Aconitum napellus contains an active principle called ACONITINE,
crystalline in some instances and amorphous in others. In the root of the
Aconitum napellus is another principle called NAPELLINE. Aconitine is also
contained in one variety of the Staphisagria, the larkspur. It is also said that
Helleborus contains ACONITIC ACID. I have heard, but with how much truth
I cannot say, that some of the inhabitants of Persia eat the tops of the
Aconitum ferox. It is also asserted (this, too, I cannot vouch for) that in
some parts of Switzerland, Aconite is grown in rows along the streets, and
the tops are cut off and used as greens. This illustrates the fact that plants
alter their properties from domestication.

When taken in poisonous doses, Aconite acts as a depressant to the cerebro-

spinal nervous system. It produces a sensation of numbness attended with
pricking and tingling in the extremities, and even complete anaesthesia. At
first the emotions are not at all impaired. It also affects the circulatory
system. After the first sensation of diffused warmth is experienced there
follows an intense internal heat and profuse hot sweat. At other times, the
skin becomes covered with a miliary rash which itches intensely. The pulse
and respiration are greatly accelerated. Secondarily, the surface of the body
becomes cool, with cold clammy sweat, the pulse grows feeble, and death
ends the scene.

In poisoning by COCCULUS INDICUS, consciousness is early disturbed. This

drug, moreover, produces a complete motor and not sensory paralysis.

Aconite produces two different sets of symptoms, entirely distinct in their

character, and as separate as though the drug were composed of two
substances, each developing its own symptoms. The second set of
symptoms, that which is most thoroughly known, is the tendency of Aconite
to develop fever and inflammation. This it does through its action on the
sympathetic nervous system. We find it indicated in genuine inflammatory
fever, in what is called synochal fever, otherwise termed sthenic fever. All
these terms apply to a fever which has about it no quality of weakness or
asthenia. The symptoms of the fevers calling for Aconite are these: There

Page 36
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

are usually dry heat of the skin, and full, hard, bounding pulse. This fever is
usually associated with anxiety. The mental symptoms and those which are
local, Hahnemann has told us, are the true guiding symptoms in the
selection of Aconite. It cannot be the remedy unless there is present anxiety,
restlessness and fear of death. The sweat which follows this fever is usually
critical and gives relief to all the symptoms. It is profuse, warm or even hot.
It has been proven that Aconite does not produce any alteration in the
quality of the blood, hence you cannot expect it to be indicated in any form
of fever in which there is a poison in the blood, destroying that fluid or
impairing its corpuscles, altering its plasma or in any way changing its
quality. The type of the Aconite fever is sthenic and continuous and not
intermittent or remittent. It has no symptom in its pathogenesis which
points to intermittency. Beginning with the initial chill or chills, the dry heat
follows and continues until sweat brings relief. Then the fever is over so far
as Aconite is concerned. It has no typical return of these febrile attacks.
Hence you cannot give Aconite in intermittent fever. Then again, it must be
borne in mind, that sometimes the fever is not the disease itself, but a
symptom which is necessary for the proper development of the disease. You
should no more attempt to lop oif this fever by the administration of Aconite,
than you would lop off one symptom in any other disease. When, then, fever
is only a symptom, Aconite should not be given to control it. Take scarlatina
for instance. The fever here may run high, the skin may be hot and dry and
the pulse hard. Superficially, Aconite appears to be indicated, yet you know,
with the other symptoms present, backache, vomiting, sore-throat apd the
existence of other cases of the disease in the neighborhood, that scarlatina
is developing. You know by removing this fever, you take away a symptom
which is necessary for the proper development of the rash belonging to the
disease. Therefore Aconite is seldom to be thought of in scarlatina. There
may be exceptional cases when the fever is disproportionately severe and
the characteristic mental symptoms are present, in which case you may
administer it, but nine cases out of ten would only be spoiled by the
administration of Aconite.

Again a mistake is made in giving Aconite in typhoid types of fever to

diminish the pulse and control the temperature. Aconite has no relation
whatever to typhoid fever. It is here given from mere symptom practice and
not through any knowledge of pathology and symptomatology. Let me beg
of you not to commence this practice; it will only lead you to alternation.

In traumatic or inflammatory fevers, Aconite must give way to other

remedies unless this restlessness or anxiety is present. One of these
remedies is BRYONIA, which has full hard pulse, increased action of the
heart, dry skin and aggravation of all the symptoms by motion. The patient
lies perfectly quiet. He is not at all restless.

Page 37
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

It is important that you distinguish between ACONITE, GELSEMIUM and APIS

in febrile states. I will therefore give you in detail, the symptoms and
conditions which make the selection of one or the other of these remedies
certain. If I repeat what has already been said, the repetition will only serve
to impress the distinction between these remedies the more firmly in your
minds. Aconite typifies the synochal fever; Gelsemium the remittent or
intermittent; Apis the intermittent or typhoid. Aconite causes decided chill,
followed by dry, hot skin and full, hard, bounding pulse; later follows warm,
profuse, critical sweat, with relief. Gelsemium causes partial chill, beginning
in the hands or running up and down the spine; followed by general heat,
most decided about the head and face. Sweat is gradual and moderate, but
always gives relief. Apis causes a chill, which is followed by burning heat all
over, or some places are hot and some cool. Heat is felt particularly in the
abdomen. Skin is hot and dry, or alternately dry and moist." Sweat is absent
or breaks out in spells, soon drying off. Under Aconite the pulse is, as
stated, full, hard, bounding. Under Gelsemium it is full, flowing, but not
hard. Under Apis it is accelerated, full and strong, or fluttering, wiry and
frequent. Aconite presupposes that the blood is not qualitatively altered.
Gelsemium admits of any change which may favor depression. Apis tends
towards toxaemia, with a typhoid type. Aconite, therefore, is the remedy
only when the fever is sthenic; such as arises from exposure to dry, cold
winds; from exposure after overheating; from cooling suddenly when warm
and sweating, etc. In bilious fever, it is indicated in the early stages when of
the sthenic type, especially because it acts on the liver. It is also the remedy
in inflammatory fever, whether traumatic or not, the type agreeing;
particularly in full-blooded, robust individuals, who readily suffer from
sudden active congestions. It bears no relation to the intermitting type of
fever; and when given during such a fever, acts only by subduing the heart's
action, and never curatively, hence never homeopathically. Neither does it
hold any relation to typhoid fever. Gelsemium is the remedy when the fever
develops under circumstances which favor a paresis of motor nerves of both
voluntary and involuntary muscles. It corresponds to that stage in which the
bloodvessels are dilated and full, but lack the firmness and resistance of a
fully developed sthenic inflammation. Such a form of fever is accompanied
by languor, muscular weakness, desire for absolute rest, and drowsiness.
Under such conditions, congestions might still be arterial, as under Aconite,
but they exhibit a passivity which is sufficiently characteristic. The pulse is
full, flowing, but not hard. So Gelsemium may be indicated in bilious fevers,
the liver being passively congested. Again, it applies in typhoid forms, but
never after the languor, and drowsiness belonging to relaxation, and
consequent passive congestion of the brain pass into great prostration and
stupor. Apis has an apparent resemblance to the sthenic fever of Aconite in
its hot skin, strong pulse, etc., and this is especially so in the beginning of
erysipelatous inflammations, or, still more, in inflammmation of serous or

Page 38
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

synovial membranes. But the tendency of the Apis is typhoid-ward or

towards effusions; Aconite never either. Thus Aconite may suit the fever
attending the initiation of a meningitis, pleuritis or synovitis; but its power
ceases when the cri encephalique, dyspnoea and dull percussion, or puffy,
doughy swelling about the joint, as the case may be, announces effusion. In
its intermittent form of fever, Apis bears no resemblance to either Aconite or
Gelsemium. Even in a rheumatic type in which Aconite and Apis both appear,
the resemblance is only superficial; for Apis either develops an erysipelatous
inflammation, or causes burning-stinging pain and an exquisite soreness, all
referable to the bloodvessels. In its lower forms Apis deserts Aconite and
completely supersedes Gelsemium. It is indicated in genuine scarlatina, in
diphtheria and in typhoid fever. There is a tendency to defibrination of the
blood, and lastly to decomposition of the fluids. In such cases, the anxious
restlessness of Aconite and the irritability or drowsiness of Gelsemium are
replaced by a fidgety restlessness and stupefaction. The excitement and
delirium of Aconite and the semi-conscious muttering of Gelsemium are
changed into a low muttering delirium and unconsciousness. Arranging the
respective symptoms according to the requirements of the Organon, we
have each remedy characterized as follows: Aconite anguish, despair,
restless tossing about during the fever; fears he will die ; throws off the
clothes; pulse full, hard, bounding ; skin hot, dry. All ends in copious sweats.
Gelsemium, irritable, sensitive; children sometimes wakeful, nervous, even
threatened with convulsions, or drowsy, eyelids heavy, look as if intoxicated
; want to remain perfectly quiet. Chill up and down the back, followed by
fever with increased drowsiness; pulse full, flowing. Sweat moderate,
gradual, but giving relief. Apis mellifica, fidgety restlessness; wants to sleep
but so nervous cannot; or, low, muttering delirium; sopor. Chill begins in the
knees or abdomen, three P.M. ; heat, with dry skin or occasional transient
spells of sweating; desire to uncover; great oppression of the chest; skin hot
in some places and cool in others. Pulse accelerated and strong; or, as
debility shows itself, wiry and frequent; intermittent, imperceptible.

BELLADONNA comes in as another concordant remedy to Aconite.

Belladonna, as we shall see in the future, does not act primarily on the vaso-
motor nerves or sympathetic ganglia, hence it does not control the calibre of
the bloodvessels. It acts primarily on the cerebro-spinal nervous system,
hence we find it indicated in fevers which begin with symptoms of the brain
and spinal cord. We find it indicated in fever which begins with the Aconite
type, but which by extension, has involved the brain. Thus we often find
Belladonna following Aconite well. Belladonna requires that brain symptoms
such as starting from sleep, throbbing headache, hot head and cold body
and extremities be present.

Page 39
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

VERATRUM VIRIDE takes the place of Aconite in fever marking the onset of
pneumonia, when there is great arterial excitement. The breathing is labored
and difficult.

When synochal fever fails to yield to Aconite, the best remedy then is
SULPHUR. The symptoms that will lead you to the selection of this remedy
are these: Despite the administration of Aconite, the dry heat persists.
Either no perspiration shows itself or if any, it is simply transient. The
patient, at first sleepless and restless, becomes drowsy and answers
questions slowly or permits an interval to elapse between your questions
and his reply. The tongue becomes dry and the speech a little thick. The
patient gives evidence of falling into a typhoid state owing to the continued
exhaustion from this heat.

FERRUM PHOSPHORICUM, of which I have already spoken more than Once,

should be distinguished from Aconite. It acts upon the bloodvessels,
producing a sort of semi-paretic state, in which they become dilated as in
the second stage of inflammation. The pulse is full and rather soft, and not
hard or tense as with Aconite. It is indicated in congestions of any part of
the body when the discharges from that part are blood-streaked. This may
be applied to dysentery, to haemoptysis, and to secondary pneumonia.

ARSENICUM ALBUM, like Aconite, causes intense fever, with anxiety, fear of
death, and restlessness; but the fever and inflammation of Arsenic are such
as belong to intense local disease, to inflammation progressing to the
destruction of the part, to fever of a typhoid type with putrid discharges, etc.

Aconite may be used in inflammatory affections of the brain. You must,

however, distinguish between an idiopathic cerebral inflammation and one
arising from deep-seated disease. Aconite can have but little influence over
tubercular meningitis. But in meningitis or cerebral congestion from lying
with the head exposed to the direct rays of the sun, especially when asleep,
it is the remedy, here being superior to either GLONOIN or BELLADONNA. It
may also be used when cerebral congestion results from a fit of anger.

Aconite may further be indicated in sunstroke when the great heat has had a
paralyzing effect on the circulation. At first the heart works harder. It then
begins to lose its force and beat from 120 to 130 beats per minute.

You may use Aconite in affections of the eyes, in conjunctivitis following

surgical operations, or resulting from a foreign body in the eye. It is also
indicated in inflammatory affections of the eyes, arising from exposure to
dry cold winds. There is a great deal of heat and burning in the eye. The eye
feels as if full of sand, and is exceedingly sensitive. The pains are so intense

Page 40
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

that the patient wishes to die; he declares that he cannot stand them. The
eye-ball feels as if forced out of the orbit, and aches; this aching is worse
when the affected part is moved or touched. Photophobia is intense. The
pupils are contracted, and there is a blue circle around the cornea, and
violent aching in the balls as in episcleritis. Even glaucoma may demand
Aconite when, in addition to the symptoms above enumerated, there are
pains extending down the face as in TIC DOULOUREUX, especially after
exposure to intense cold or to cold winds or in rheumatic patients. If,
however, Aconite does not relieve promptly, you must resort to other
measures at once, as this disease may destroy sight in an incredibly short
time.

SULPHUR is indicated in conjunctivitis from irritation of foreign bodies when

Aconite fails.

SPIGELIA has many pains similar to those of Aconite, especially in the left
eye; but its inflammation is less general than in the case of Aconite.

The other action of Aconite is very different from that already considered.
These symptoms belong more to the cerebro-spinal nervous system. First,
we will speak of the symptoms of the mind itself. We find Aconite useful for
mental disease or hysteria when there is particular aversion to excitement,
especially to busy streets. The patients dare not cross these streets because
of fear that something will happen to them. This symptom is perfectly
normal under some circumstances, but when extreme denotes over-
excitement of the brain, common enough in hysterical patients. They are
anxious. They show an intolerance of music. They can bear no sounds, so
sensitive are the ears. They imagine that some part of the body is deformed,
E. G., a limb displaced, lips too thick, features distorted, imagine they do all
their thinking from the stomach. Sometimes such patients during attacks of
illness have "spells" in which they predict the hour of death. You may
sometimes note this symptom in puerperal fever. COFFEA also has the
symptom, predicts the hour of death.

Further than this Aconite causes paralysis; a paralysis which may easily be
remembered from two or three subjective symptoms; paralysis accompanied
by coldness, numbness, and tingling. Unless there is tingling in the affected
part we seldom find Aconite indicated. Even paralysis of both legs,
paraplegia, may yield to Aconite with this characteristic coldness of the limbs
and tingling. We may also use Aconite in various forms of local palsies, as
facial paralysis, when associated with the above mentioned symptoms, and
when traceable to exposure to dry cold winds.

Page 41
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

CANNABIS INDICA and STAPHISAGRIA should be remembered in paralysis,

with tingling in the affected parts; and RHUS TOX., SULPHUR, and
CAUSTICUM in paralysis from cold.

The neuralgia for which Aconite is the remedy, is caused by exposure to dry
cold winds. Especially is it indicated when there is violent congestion of the
affected part, which is usually the face. The face will be red and swollen. The
pains drive the patient almost to despair. There is usually tingling in the
affected part. You may here compare SPIGELIA, which is useful in left-sided
prosopalgia, with severe burning sticking pains. The patient exhibits intense
excitement and great intolerance of the pains.

COLCHICUM is likewise indicated in left-sided prosopalgia. The pains are

associated with a paralytic weakness of the muscles, but lack the severity of
those of Spigelia.

Aconite is a very important remedy in the treatment of affections of the

heart. The symptoms indicating it in these cases are numerous and
important, and necessarily so, since Aconite so disturbs the blood-flow, and
also exerts a special action on the heart and its nerves. There are
congestions to both heart and lungs, palpitation with anxiety, cardiac
oppression, and even syncope. The palpitation is worse when walking.
Lancinating stitches occur and prevent the patient from assuming an erect
posture or taking a deep inspiration. Attacks of intense pain extend from the
heart down the left arm and are associated with numbness and tingling in
the fingers.

In hypertrophy of the heart Aconite is indicated by this numbness and

tingling in the fingers. It is in uncomplicated hypertrophy of the heart only
that you should give this remedy. In hypertrophy from valvular disease it
may do great harm. You should here compare Aconite with ARNICA, AURUM,
RHUS TOX., and CACTUS GRANDIFLORUS. KALMIA and RHUS also have
numbness and tingling in the left arm with heart disease.

Aconite may be used in the first stages of pneumonia when the fever is high
and has been preceded by a chill. Symptoms of engorgement of the lungs
are present. The cough is usually hard and dry and rather painful. At most,
the expectoration is serous or watery, and a little blood-streaked, but not
thick and blood-streaked. The patient is necessarily full of anxiety.

BRYONIA comes in to take the place of Aconite, especially when hepatization

has commenced. The cough is still hard and painful, and is associated with

Page 42
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

thicker expectoration. The anguish is now traceable to oppression of

breathing and not to the fever ; the patient prefers to lie still rather than to
be tossed about. Aconite may also be indicated in pleurisy, in the very
beginning before there is any exudation; when there are sharp stitches on
either side of the chest; when there are chills, followed by febrile action;
when the whole trouble has arisen from a checked perspiration or
confinement from the fresh air.

In croup, whether catarrhal or membranous, you should give Aconite when

the trouble has arisen from exposure to dry cold northwest winds. The
patient is aroused from sleep with long suffocative attacks. The cough is of a
hard, dry, barking character, and may be heard all over the house. There
are great difficulty of breathing, anxiety, and high fever.

SPONGIA is to be used when the breathing becomes "sawing." The cough is

still barking, harsh, and rasping. It is especially indicated in light
complexioned blue-eyed children, especially if the trouble is worse before
midnight.

HEPAR should be given if the cough is worse towards morning, and is

associated with rattling of mucus.

SAMBUCUS is called for when there is spasm of the glottis. The breathing is
of a wheezing crowing character, and is worse after midnight and from lying
with the head low.

In haemoptysis calling for Aconite the blood is bright red. The trouble is
always associated with anxiety and with fever. In haemoptysis you may
compare with Aconite the following :

MILLEFOLIUM, which has haemoptysis, with profuse flow of bright red blood,
but without fever.

LEDUM for haemoptysis of drunkards or persons of a rheumatic constitution.

The blood is bright red and foamy.

CACTUS GRANDIFLORUS for haemoptysis with strong throbbing of the heart.

It has, however, less anxiety and less fever than has Aconite.

Aconite is frequently of use in abdominal diseases, especially in

inflammatory affections of these parts. Thus you may give it in inflammatory
colic, the pains from which, force the patient to bend double, yet are not
relieved by any position. (Compare COLOCYNTH.)

Page 43
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

This symptom is invaluable in the beginning of inflammatory processes

within the abdomen, and also in some cases of ovarian dysmenorrhoea.

Aconite may be used in dysentery, especially when the disease occurs in the
autumn when warm days are followed by cold nights. In this disease,
Aconite is followed very well by MERCURIUS.

The diarrhoea of Aconite is of inflammatory origin. The stools are watery,

slimy and bloody. It usually appears in summer as the result of indulgence in
cold drinks or from checked perspiration.

Cholera infantum calls for Aconite when the stools look like chopped spinach,
and the inflammatory symptoms already mentioned, are present.

You should also remember Aconite in incarcerated hernia when inflammation

has started up in the strangulated bowel, with burning pain in the affected
part. There are also vomiting of bile, great anxiety and cold sweat.

Coming now to the genital organs, we sometimes find Aconite indicated in

dysmenorrhoea which has been supposed to result from thickening of the
peritoneum over the ovaries. The characteristic colic, which I described a
few minutes ago, is present.

During pregnancy, Aconite may be administered for certain mental

symptoms, such as fear of death, excitable temperament, etc. It may also
be used for impending abortion caused by anger.

During labor itself it may be given when the pains are unnaturally violent
and frequent. The patient complains that she cannot breathe, that she
cannot bear the pains. She is restless and anxious and the body is covered
with a hot sweat.

In the milk-fever, Aconite is to be given when the mammary glands are hot
and swollen, and the skin hot and dry. These symptoms are associated with
restlessness and anxiety.

Suppression of the lochia is an indication for Aconite, when caused by some

violent emotion, and when associated with high fever, thirst and anxiety.
The mammae are lax and the abdomen distended and sensitive to touch.

Aconite is not often indicated in puerperal fevers because they are generally
of septic origin, but for one form of child-bed fever it is the only remedy
capable of subduing the whole affair within a few hours.

Page 44
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

The nurse, perhaps, has carelessly exposed the patient after a hard labor,
has bathed her with too cold water or thoughtlessly changed her clothing
without the necessary precautions; then you may give Aconite, the
symptoms, of course, agreeing.

While Aconite is not called for in scarlatina, still it may be used in that
disease, when after the stage of desquamation, the child catches cold and
acute Bright's disease results. The child starts up from sleep in perfect
agony, with cold sweat on the forehead and with cold limbs. Dropsy is also
present.

In acute coryza you find Aconite indicated when the trouble has arisen from
the usual Aconite causes, when the nasal mucous membrane is dry and hot,
and when there is most violent throbbing headache. The patient feels better
when in the open air. The muscles all over the body feel sore so that
sneezing forces him to support his chest.

In skin diseases, Aconite is sometimes indicated. Though not a remedy for

scarlatina, it is for scarlet-rash with high fever.

In measles, it is early called for, when with the fever there are red eyes,
restlessness, dry barking cough and itching and burning of tha surface.

SULPHUR is the proper remedy when Aconite has been abused.

Page 45
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

CASES
Aconitum Napellus - for acute illness or is it deeper?
by Ai-Ling Makewell
emaiI: essentialbeing@ozforces.com

Aconitum Napellus – Is It A Remedy for Acute illness Only? or Is It Something

Deeper?

Aconite is a remedy well known for its use in an acute manifestation. The literatures
handed down over the past two hundred years give the idea that “Aconite is a
short-acting remedy of immense value in the early hours of acute illness. Its use in
this way may abort a more serious condition, but if symptoms persist the use of a
different remedy must be considered” (Gibson, 1987:7). No doubt, potential
development of many more serious illnesses that could be resulting from shock was
aborted because of the use of Aconite at the onset of an acute illness. The inference
of such is that the usefulness of Aconite is limited to acute manifestation of illnesses
only, yet experiences have shown that it could be a much deeper acting remedy
than it has been suggested.
I have obtained good result from using Aconite in a number of cases where
accidents had taken place in a person’s life many years prior to the manifestation of
those complaints that brought them to seek help. Aconite could be a deep acting
remedy that heals the cause of a disease manifestation (e.g. shock, accident)
though there may not apparently be a causal link between the two.
The following four cases demonstrate that Aconite is more than a remedy just for
acute manifestation if the essence of the remedy and the individual condition are in
resonance. In the case of Aconite, the essence is that of shock.

Aconitum case 1
by Ai-Ling Makewell
Case 1 Aconitum:
A woman in her mid thirties came to see me in the early 2007. I will call her
Marian. As soon as Marian sat down, she told me that there are two things not right
in her. One is fussiness in her head and confusion. It sometimes feels as if there is
a clot in the head which gives rise to her feeling of being unable to be decisive or
articulate. The other issue is that she feels unbalanced and disoriented at times.
Marian is quite talkative, she continued with her story telling me that her head is
clouded and she also feels guilty in some way because she left home (Europe)
abruptly. Marian came to Australia as a backpacker, but ended up staying here and
got married a few years ago. She had to leave and get as far away from her

Page 46
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

homeland as possible because she felt restrained as if by a horse-cart. Her mother’s

anger toward her leaving home resulted in cutting off of communications.
The sensation of confusion is accompanied by feeling of weight at the back of head,
lacking clarity, and feels like being held just beneath the surface of water.
She had a nasty car accident four years ago and was nearly killed. She
felt “rattled” (her own word) by the experience, which resulted in the loss of
strength to the extent that she could not even open the lid of a jar. She apparently
had a feeling of confusion prior to the accident, but it was worse afterward. The
Doctor gave her an anti-depressant for eight months after her recovery from the
accident.

Case Analysis:
Marian’s car accident was a major shock to her entire being. Although her broken
body, resulting from the accident, was healed over time with no apparent
undesirable after-effect, the shock she received from the accident was never
addressed by the orthodox medicine (given anti-depressants). The potential impact
from the shock of the car accident could have contributed to the development of
greater confusion and fussiness in the head and her feeling of not being balanced.
I decided to give Marian Aconite 1M to address the shock she received from her car
accident. Although the car accident was four years ago, the energetic imprints of
the shock still affect her well being today. The energy frequency carried by the
homoeopathic remedies transcends time and space, though Aconite is traditionally
considered to be a remedy for acute manifestation only. If the essences of the
remedy and the condition resonate, then it shall have an effect on the vital force.
Prescription: Aconite 1M.

Response: (I always give a remedy on the spot to the patient because I expect to
see his/her reaction from the given remedy within minutes so to confirm the
prescription).
Marian’s response to Aconite is rather interesting because she is what we call
a "sensitive". She begins to describe her feeling of sensation almost straight away.
The following account is Marian’s description of her reaction to Aconite 1M:
"It feels as if life is coming back to my body, the energy is rising from the leg and
abdomen upward. My eyes feel differently, I can see a little more sharply, tension
behind my eyes is reduced, light coming into the back of my eyes. My arms are
loosened, not so heavy and back of my head feels unusual, not in a sickly way.
I do feel very differently – calmer, better, there was tightness in the solar plexus
for a time. I feel that something on the left side is coming back into the body and
becoming more centred – definitely feeling more together – more of a UNIT than
previously."
As Marian was walking out of the door she said: “I could feel my feet on the
ground!”
Marian had Aconite 1M one more time. She reported that everything was fine, no
fussiness and has been brilliant since the remedy.

Page 47
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Aconitum case 2
This is a boy baby of 13 months. He has had eczema since he was six
months old.

Baby’s Health History;

The eczema weeps when it is bad.
He is allergic to cortisones, dairy foods, and mangos. His eczema got a bit
better when his mother changed her diet (breast fed).
He was put under light for a week within five minutes after birth because of
being severely jaundiced.
Has a great deal of energy, very active, extremely curious, and good
appetite.
He has seen a chiropractor periodically since birth.
He is not sleeping well at the moment (doesn’t sleep for long either) and is
quite happy as long as mother is around.
Premature birth by three weeks.
The birth was quick – a bit of shock to the mother too.
Not vaccinated.

Case Analysis:
My reason to give the baby Aconite was based on the shock he experienced
from being born too quickly. The shock could be the cause for the
manifestation of his eczema, especially when he was not vaccinated. If his
eczema remains after the layer of shock is taken away, then I will look for
another remedy that fits him. However, this was not required as he did very
well on Aconite.

Prescription: Aconite 30C one dose.

Response: The child is well since, no more eczema outbreaks.

Aconitum case 3
Case 3 Aconitum:
This is a nine month old baby girl, Sarah. The main reason for the visit was "glue
ears".

Sarah goes to child care one day a week since she was six months old and has

Page 48
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

separation anxiety. At six and one-half months old she had a viral infection with
fever and ear infection. She was grumpy, crying a lot, not sleeping well, both ear
drums burst with yellow fluid discharge. Though Sarah’s ear drums healed after a
course of antibiotics there was still fluid in the ears. As such, the ear specialist
recommended for grummets to be put into her ears. She also had a hearing test
three times because Sarah’s mother has hearing problems.
Sarah is developmentally ahead of time, she crawled at five months. She is very
active ever since birth, inquisitive, curious, and has a very placid temperament. She
tends to cry herself to sleep, breathing is heavy (runny nose), gobbles down her
drink fast. Sarah likes to play, laughs a lot, but doesn’t like her nose and face
touched. She is prone to a nappy rash on her bottom.
Her birth was rather traumatic – induced birth, mother had epidural and pain killer
and Sarah was born within thirty minutes.

Prescription: Aconite 30C (2 doses – 1 a week). I squirt the Aconite liquid into
Sarah’s mouth, within the minute she turned around and came over and touched
me on the knee (she stayed close to her father before then).

Response: Sarah sleeps well – from 8 o’clock at night till 7 in the morning, she no
longer cries herself to sleep. Her ears cleared up. She is more active and tries to
climb things. No more separation anxiety. She hasn’t had a rash on the bottom.
Mother says that everything is going well.

Aconitum case 4
by Ai-Ling Makewell
Case 4 Aconitum:
A man of 36 years of age, Max, came to see me because of his long standing
hay-fever. He has been taking anti-histamines since he was a child.
He sneezes from morning (within a couple of minutes on waking), on and off
through out the day with itchy and watery eyes. Max’s hay-fever began ever
since he broke out in hives when at age 7. His hay-fever tends to last the
whole of the summer season.
He was vaccinated with mumps and measles, but had chicken-pox.
Max was rather accident prone from the age of 5 to 18, he was in and out of
hospital for one accident or another. These experiences have led to his fear
of hospitals. While playing on the playground as a small child he fell off the
climbing frame and hit his head. Then at age 5 he was hit by a car and
ended up in hospital for observation though no serious injuries. In his teens
a cricket ball hit his head while playing the game, his glasses cut his eye
which required stitches. Another incident was a bridge broke apart when he
was crossing it, which sent him flying into a river.
Max likes most of foods, ice cream and sweet foods, not interested in cheese
or salt. He works in the insurance industry. This is just a job to him. His art

Page 49
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

(animation) is where his passion lies and he worked as an animator

previously. The first studio he worked for went bankrupt, then the work
dried up when he worked for another studio. He was unable to obtain
another job as an animator since. Max loves his art and is confident in what
he does. However, he is not so confident in areas where he lacked the
necessary skills (in animation). He is not the kind of person who could bluff
his way into an area of work if he lacked the skill to be really good at it. He
doesn’t want to give false impressions or let others down with not working
up to standard.
As a child at school he was often bullied, called names and being put down.
He loves and participated in many forms of sports at school which was his
way of defending himself. Max has three younger brothers with whom he
developed good friendships too. He is sensitive, empathic and always helps
others out when they are in need.

Case Analysis:
Max had hay-fever not long after fallen and hit his head at the playground
and being hit by a car. It is quite possible that his hay-fever was a reaction
to the shocks received from his accidents. His hay-fever worsened over the
years. For this reason I decided on Aconite 1M first. Then I gave him
Niobium-phosphorus-oxygenium 200C on his return visit.
On receiving the Aconitum Napellus 1M Max felt that something has lifted off
him with a sense of peace within, felt more awake, a lot more relaxed and
his eyes were more open.
My reason for prescribing Niobium-phosphorus-oxygenium is that at the core
Max is a very creative person with a passion for art (animation). His artistic
temperament points to a possible remedy from the Silver series. Although
Max had opportunities to work in the industry to express his artistic talents,
due to unforeseen circumstances (the company went bankrupt) he was out
of work and unable to find another job in the same area. As a result, he
was “pushed” into a job which he does not really enjoy, but keeping it for
practical reasons. All of these symptoms pointing to a stage 5
theme, “tormented by not showing their talents, doubt whether they will be
able to develop their creative talents", etc. Max is talented in his creative
work, but is unable to make a go of it. The remedy is Niobium – stage 5
Silver series, in combination with Phosphorus and Oxygenium.
My choice of phosphorus is due to Max’s sympathetic temperament and his
empathy toward others extends to him giving help to those in need. The
theme of siblings, friends, and school is characteristic of phosphorus. The
aspect of being a victim (bullied and abused by other students at the school)
was not addressed by the combination of Niobium-phosphorus, therefore I
add the remedy Oxygenium to this combination.
Prescription: Aconite 1M on the initial visit. Niobium-phosphorus-oxygenium

Page 50
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

200C on the return visit.

Response: One month after the Aconite 1M Max reports that there was no
more sneezing a week later. The intensity of sneezing decreased a great
deal – only the occasional ones. He is feeling really good. On this visit Max
was given Niobium-phosphorus-oxygenium 200C, immediately he says that
he is feeling relaxed, more at ease, more alert and awake, more centered,
tingling in finger tips and a sense of joy arising from within.

The third visit: The hay-fever has vastly improved, though still sneezing a bit
from time to time. I am getting more information this time. Apparently Max
used to snore in his sleep, he is not sure if this has decreased but his wife
has not mentioned it. There was prior use of different drugs – amphetamine,
speed, ecstasy and marijuana for a short period of time. He has stopped
using these for the past three years.
After the Niobium-phosphorus-oxygenium he is quieter, able to sit and think
more about his life purpose and tries to understand his own purpose in the
big scheme of things. He feels more ready to take up his drawing pen again
(hasn’t done this for years), whereas prior to taking the remedy he just tried
to forget about everything to do with art and beat himself up for not doing
anything. Now he is able to accept himself much more for who he is and not
beat himself up when he doesn’t feel like doing something. He also picked up
an Art book to read and look at it (it was given to him as a present a while
back).
Max is so much more centered within himself, much more relaxed with more
of a sense of purpose within him. His hay-fever is markedly improved with
odd sneezes only. Max is doing well on Niobium-phosphorus-oxygenium and
this remedy may serve Max well for a while longer.

Conclusion:
Aconite is a remedy though well known for its great use in an emergency
situations. These four cases have shown that there is no time constraint in
the usefulness of this remedy. Aconite is extremely useful to unblock the
energy flow if there was the element of shock involved when tracing one’s
aetiology in the development of an illness.
Aconite acts deeply and brings the body back into equilibrium even when the
shock had taken place many years ago. It unblocks the obstructed energy
flow so that the remedy given for constitutional treatment after Aconite can
act in its fullness.

Page 51
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Categories: Remedies
Keywords: Aconitum, hay-fever, Niobium-phosphorus-oxygenium

Aconit, Natrium sulphuricum, Fuzzy Impressions, Two Cases

by Frans Maan
Case One
Man, born 1969, salesman in a shop. First consultation: November 2001.

Main complaint: Strong fears and Anxieties.

It is worse since last summer after moving to a new town and getting a new job
with an ex-army man as his superior. Sensation as if he cannot breath. Spasms in
his esophagus and nauseous with it. Rotten smelling stools. (He also suffers
chronically from worms.) Physically tense and nervous. Worse on the weekends and
in company. Worse in buses and in cars. He feels he needs to be able to get away.
He feels locked in, as if apart from others. Depersonalized. Stiff and panic. Clearcut
fear of death.
The last year his back feels stiff as well, on the left of the vertebra next to his
scapula. Main area T 5. Bruised and burning pain extending to his lungs. Pain <
from cold and wet.

When he was nine years old he had been very ill with a high fever and delusions,
especially in the evenings and nights before 24 hours. It started after holidays in
the Alps. His sense of distances was gone and there were masses of people and
flooding. He fell into other dimensions. Black holes. Waking with screaming. "I am
dying, I am dying." His parents tried to comfort him, but he feared falling asleep
again. Hospitalization for observation followed. Ever since then there have been
fears and nightmares. For instance, about his mother who turned into a demon (she
had premenstrual syndrome and could get aggressive now and again). The wind
sucking him in, but also there were beautiful images sometimes, like an old oak
tree on top of a hill.

At home he was often left to himself by his parents. In his early high school period
he had panic attacks and often was hypochondrical. In his late puberty he had been
a rebel, illegally occupying houses, demonstrating against nuclear warfare etc., but
in fact he was not politically engaged. Never had been happy in cities, he prefers
the quietness of the country. Depressions and suicidal thoughts, many images
about suicide, and often lonely.
Six years ago a relationship broke off when he was educated in another country to
become a carpenter. His friend was pregnant and felt forsaken by him. She blamed
him a lot and for three years he was not allowed any contact with the newborn son.
All the blaming had a repercussion on his self confidence, with powerless anger. He
felt alone.

Sleep is well.

Page 52
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

He likes exercise and mountaineering.

Psychically worse in winter.
Desires: bread, old cheese, tea, peppers, meat, eggs, dutch food, new herring.
Aversion: fats.
Hardly perspiring; not especially thirsty or thirsless.

In the past he had taken;

Nat-m.: depressions >
Ipec.: nausea >
Cina: worms >
Staph.: fears <
XXXX.: euphoric for some time.
Rhus-t.: back complaints >, fears <
All remedies were taken in the range 30 - 200; single doses.

I did not repertorize the case, because I had been thinking about XXXX among
others, before he mentioned it. XXXX was Aconite, and I gave him a 10 M, single
dose.

Follow up:
Second consultation after 4 weeks:
Fears gone; spasms much better, esophagus sensation much better. No oppressed
breathing anymore. No doomed feeling about the future anymore. Rest and calm
inside. Less tense, but there is still some burning pain near T 5. Stool improved, no
worms anymore. More strength. Expresses anger more easily. Once he had fainted
in the shop he works in. Some clairvoyant like dreams. In general much better.

He was very happy with my choice of Aconite, not only because it worked, but also
because he had gotten a clairvoyant image last summer that he would encounter
an important plant in the mountains where he was to spend his holidays. The first
plant that drew his attention there was Aconite.

Eight months later:

He repeated Aconite 200 once by himself when he had an incomplete relapse and it
worked some. On my suggestion he repeated the 10M, and it worked very well
again. For extra information, he told me that he probably was an Aconite case from
birth onwards, at birth he was almost strangled by his umbilicus.

The reason why I like to present this case is because of my impression apart from
the complaints. In the consultations this man made a mild impression, even
yielding, but only yielding up to a point. A bit Pulsatilla like, but with a little more
‘body’. He was very careful in his choice of words in order to make his feelings as
clear to me as he could. His speech was even, a little slow and a bit round about.
Certainly he was not rash or direct. He seemed an introvert who has chosen that he
needs help, and opening up because of that. At the same time, I could sense he
was alert to any subtle signs of rejection on my part. I needed to take a soft
approach, to allow him to be as open as he could. Apart from his story, you could
sense his vulnerability and sensitivity by just looking at him. Now and again he

Page 53
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

made big eyed glances at me, to assure himself I was still listening carefully.
This impression illustrates the ‘difficult concentration’, ‘timidity and bashfulness’
and possibly even ‘suspiciousness’ of Aconite, in a possible ‘constitutional case’
(whatever the ambiguity of the concept ‘constitutional’).

Case Two
Man, born 1963. First consultation 1994.
There is no ‘main complaint’ in this case. He comes to me to find out if homeopathy
can offer something to improve his general condition.
I will give his story in the following order as he told it, which is a bit messy.

Since January 1993 he has been on Leponex (anti-psychotic) and he sleeps a lot on
it. From 1990 to 1993 he has been on Imipramin (anti-depressive). The reason has
been that he had ‘delusional ideas’. At the time it started he worked at the Justice
Department, and he sensed that the police were watching him from the houses of
his neighbours. He felt he was suspected to have stolen documents. The air-force
was measuring his IQ. He had been studying economics, but dropped out. There
was suspicion and a feeling of guilt, also about ‘some things’ in his youth. Since
1989 he has been in psychiatric care.

In general he feels worse in the evenings. He wakes up late and goes to bed late.
Once he had the sensation that people were present in his sleeping-room. He
bought arsenic against rats. He has difficulties concentrating and ‘thinking and
acting seemed to diverge’. When he was about 20 years old he got the idea that
something wasn’t right in his head and he had a lot of problems concerning high-
school exams. Now there is structure in his life. He still has voices, thoughts in his
head and uses lactulose to defecate once a day.
He likes Indian foods, spicy, sweets, chocolate, ice-cream and he is thirsty. He likes
spring and autumn as well as forests and music. He never had an intimate
relationship, he prefers to be free. He sleeps well, on his back. Dreams about being
pursued. When he was 18 years old he dreamt about being asleep in a coffin. Two
times he made suicide attempts (jumping in front of a train). Since the Leponex
there is salivation during sleep. He bites his nails (always). As a kid he often was
anxious about the idea that his parents would be dead one day. His father was a
marine-officer. About 10 years ago he masturbated a lot. In his family, work has
always been an important issue. He always has difficulty expressing anger and as a
kid he feared robbers and the dark. He used to have examination fright and he
often wonders if he does the right things. There is an empty feeling in his head.

As you see, the interview was quite messy and incomplete. I didn’t want to push
him because he seemed to have a very fragile balance. He did his utmost to answer
questions carefully. It seemed that guilt was a big issue.
After Kalium bromatum (30) he became less hurried and his ability to concentrate
improved some. In general he felt warmer. He continued to have paranoid dreams
and still heard some voices. He also tells about short manic episodes and when
playing tennis he always wants to win. For many years he has diarrhea and he
defecates about 6 - 8 times a day (contrary to what he mentioned in the first
interview).

Page 54
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

In a period of half a year he took Kalium bromatum again two times, and each time
he reports feeling more rest inside. Once we tried Bromum without benefit. He felt
locked in for a period after that.

Six years later in I see him again.

He tells me he has a tendency to postpone decisions and he often stays in bed till
11 o' clock.
Desires herring (2), salt and what is mentioned above.
Aversion to vinegar and fat.
After drinking beer he gets nightmares, for instance of being eaten by crocodiles
and or lions.
In general he feels better among people. There are still voices in his head and
paranoid ideas sometimes. Diarrhea is unchanged. Biting nails unchanged.
Concentration difficult.
The diarrhea is worse in the morning, and he has to defecate immediately after
rising. His stool often smell like rotten eggs.

Analysis:
This time I looked in the repertory at: 'rectum; diarrhea; morning; rising, after' and
in the rubric just below it: ‘and moving about’. (In line with one of Hahnemann’s
commands.) Natrium sulphuricum is in bold type in both rubrics. To me this was
merely one foot to stand on. However, after I had looked at correspondences
between common personality psychology and our materia medica (see Homeopathy
in Reflexive Perspective), I had moved on to find clues. As to ‘paranoid’ I suspected
on theoretical grounds that it would link mostly, but not exclusively, with the
‘possibly hostile’ (low scores on Big Five ‘Agreeableness’) columns and rows in the
periodic table: columns 8 and 16 and row 6. Also possibly with the dependent and
vulnerable columns and rows (high sores on BF Agreeableness): columns 2, 4 and
12 and row 2. Since the Sulphur part of Nat-s. is in column 16, I used that as a
fuzzy confirmation. With Nat-s in mind, some other aspects of the case fit as well
and so I gave him Natrium sulphuricum M, one dose.

Follow up:
Consultation 2 months later:
Diarrhea got worse at first, but stopped completely later on and he was very happy
with that. His life got better organized and he had started a voluntary job. More
important, no more nightmares. No more delusional and paranoid ideas.
After a slight recurrence of the diarrhea half a year later we repeated the Nat-s. He
didn’t stop the Leponex on advice of his psychiatrist, but before it hadn’t been
enough to stop the delusions.
Now, nearly a year later, he is still doing fine without paranoia and without
nightmares.

The issue this case might raise is if psychic ‘end states’ can be inferred or induced
from our known mental emotional remedy pictures.

Page 55
 Aconitum napellus and other Aconitums

Categories: Remedies
Keywords: fears, anxieties, Aconite, delusionary, paranoid, Natrium-sulphuricum

Page 56