Gelsemium

Centers its action upon the nervous system, causing various degrees of motor paralysis. General prostration. Dizziness, drowsiness, dullness, and trembling. Slow pulse, tired feeling, mental apathy. Paralysis of various groups of muscles about the eyes, throat, chest, larynx, sphincter, extremities, etc. Post-diphtheritic paralysis. Muscular weakness. Complete relaxation and prostration. Lack of muscular co-ordination. General depression from heat of sun. Sensitive to a falling barometer; cold and dampness brings on many complaints. Children fear falling, grab nurse or crib. Sluggish circulation. Nervous affections of cigarmakers. Influenza. Measles. Pellagra.

Mind

Desire to be quiet, to be left alone. Dullness, languor, listless. “Discernings are lethargied.” Apathy regarding his illness. Absolute lack of fear. Delirious on falling to sleep. Emotional excitement, fear, etc., lead to bodily ailments. Bad effects from fright, fear, exciting news. Stage fright. Child starts and grasps the nurse, and screams as if afraid of falling. [Bor.]

Head

Vertigo, spreading from occiput. Heaviness of head; band-feeling around and occipital headache. Dull, heavy ache, with heaviness of eyelids; bruised sensation; better, compression and lying with head high. Pain in temple, extending into ear and wing of nose, chin. Headache, with muscular soreness of neck and shoulders. Headache preceded by blindness; better, profuse urination. Scalp sore to touch. Delirious on falling asleep. Wants to have head raised on pillow.

Eyes p. 300

Ptosis; eyelids heavy; patient can hardly open them. Double vision. Disturbed muscular apparatus. Corrects blurring and discomfort in eyes even after accurately adjusted glasses. Vision blurred, smoky. [Cycl.; Phos.] Dim-sighted; pupils dilated and insensible to light. Orbital neuralgia, with contraction and twitching of muscles. Bruised pain back of the orbits. One pupil dilated, the other contracted. Deep inflammations, with haziness of vitreous. Serous inflammations. Albuminuric retinitis. Detached retina, glaucoma and descemetitis. Hysterical amblyopia.

Nose p. 300

Sneezing; fullness at root of nose. Dryness of nasal fossæ. Swelling of turbinates. Watery, excoriating discharge. Acute coryza, with dull headache and fever.

Face p. 300

Hot heavy, flushed, besotted-looking. [Bapt.; Op.] Neuralgia of face. Dusky hue of face, with vertigo and dim vision. Facial muscles contracted, especially around the mouth. Chin quivers. Lower jaw dropped.

Mouth p. 300

Putrid taste and breath. Tongue numb, thick, coated, yellowish, tremble, paralyzed.

Throat p. 300

Difficult swallowing, especially of warm food. Itching and tickling in soft palate and naso-pharynx. Pain in sterno-cleido-mastoid, back of parotid. Tonsils swollen. Throat feels rough, burning. Post-diphtheritic paralysis. Tonsillitis; shooting pain into ears. Feeling of a lump in throat that cannot be swallowed. Aphonia. Swallowing causes pain in ear. [Hep.; Nux.] Difficult swallowing. Pain from throat to ear.

Stomach p. 300

As a rule, the Gelsemium patient has no thirst. Hiccough; worse in the evening. Sensation of emptiness and weakness at the pit of the stomach, or of an oppression, like a heavy load.

Stool p. 300

Diarrhœa from emotional excitement, fright, bad news. [Phos. ac.] Stool painless or involuntary. Cream-colored [Calc.], tea-green. Partial paralysis of rectum and sphincter.

Urine p. 300

Profuse, clear, watery, with chilliness and tremulousness. Dysuria. Partial paralysis of bladder; flow intermittent. [Clematis.] Retention.

Female p. 301

Rigid os. [Bell.] Vaginismus. False labor-pains; pains pass up back. Dysmenorrhœa, with scanty flow; menses retarded. Pain extends to back and hips. Aphonia and sore throat during menses. Sensation as if uterus were squeezed. [Cham.; Nux v.; Ustilago.]

Male p. 301

Spermatorrhœa, without erections. Genitals cold and relaxed. [Phos. ac.] Scrotum continually sweating. Gonorrhœa, first stage; discharge scanty; tendency to corrode; little pain, but much heat; smarting at meatus.

Respiratory p. 301

Slowness of breathing, with great prostration. Oppression about chest. Dry cough, with sore chest and fluent coryza. Spasm of the glottis. Aphonia; acute bronchitis, respiration quickened, spasmodic affections of lungs and diaphragm.

Heart p. 301

A feeling as if it were necessary to keep in motion, or else heart’s action would cease. Slow pulse. [Dig.; Kalm.; Apoc. can.] Palpitation; pulse soft, weak, full and flowing. Pulse slow when quiet, but greatly accelerated on motion. Weak, slow pulse of old age.

Back p. 301

Dull, heavy pain. Complete relaxation of the whole muscular system. Languor; muscles feel bruised. Every little exertion causes fatigue. Pain in neck, especially upper sterno-cleido muscles. Dull aching in lumbar and sacral region, passing upward. Pain in muscles of back, hips, and lower extremities, mostly deep-seated.

Extremities p. 301

Loss of power of muscular control. Cramp in muscles of forearm. Professional neuroses. Writer’s cramp. Excessive trembling and weakness of all limbs. Hysteric convulsions. Fatigue after slight exercise.

Sleep p. 301

Cannot get fully to sleep. Delirious on falling asleep. Insomnia from exhaustion; from uncontrollable thinking; tobacco. Yawning. Sleepless from nervous irritation. [Coffea.]

Fever p. 301

Wants to be held, because he shakes so. Pulse slow, full, soft, compressible. Chilliness up and down back. Heat and sweat stages, long and exhausting. Dumb-ague, with much muscular soreness, great prostration, and violent headache. Nervous chills. Bilious remittent fever, with stupor, dizziness, faintness; thirstless, prostrated. Chill, without thirst, along spine; wave-like, extending upward from sacrum to occiput.

Skin p. 302

Hot, dry, itching, measle-like eruption. Erysipelas. Measles, catarrhal symptoms; aids in bringing out eruption. Retrocedent, with livid spots. Scarlet fever with stupor and flushed face.

Modalities p. 302

Worse, damp weather, fog, before a thunderstorm, emotion, or excitement, bad news, tobacco-smoking, when thinking of his ailments; at 10 a. m. Better, bending forward, by profuse urination, open air, continued motion, stimulants.

Relationship p. 302

Compare: Ignatia (gastric affections of cigarmakers); Baptisa; Ipecac.; Acon.; Bell.; Cimicif.; Magnes. phos. (Gelsem. contains some Magnes. phos.) Culex—(vertigo on blowing the nose with fulness of the ears.)

Antidotes: China; Coffea; Dig. Alcoholic stimulants relieve all complaints where Gelsem. is useful.