DIGITALIS HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY FOR HEART
Digitalis purpurea. Fox-glove. N. O. Scrophulariaceae.
Tincture from the leaves of the second year of the plant.
HAHNEMANN was assisted in this proving by BECHER , FRANZ , GROSS, HORNBURG, LANGHAMMER, J.G. LEHMANN, MEYER, E.F. RUCKERT, STAPF, TEUTHORN.
[The proving in the Fragmenta was made with the expressed juice of the leaves.
In the Mat. Med. Pura Hahnemann directs the seeds to be used for making the tincture, in the Chronic Diseases the entire plant.]
1. HAHNEMANN, Fragmenta de Viribus. Contains 23 symptoms obtained by self and 33 from authors.
2. IBID., Mat. Med. Pura, vol. iv of original, vol. i of translation. Contains 73 symptoms from self, 224 from ten fellow-provers, and 131 from authors.
3. IBID., Chronic Diseases, part iii of original, vol. of translation. Contains 300 fresh symptoms, from 3 new observers and from Jorg (see i, 7-14 here).
This plant, which grows wild on open mountainous plateaux, is one of the most powerful medicinal substances of the vegetable kingdom; it has been frequently abused by the physicians of the old school, who sought to gainconsideration through violent action on the patient, without considering of
what nature this action might be; for they had not knowledge sufficient to apply this remedy to the various diseases for which it it suitable.
Digitalis acts profoundly upon the muscular substance of the heart and arteries through the pneumogastric and the vaso-motor nerves, producing debility of these tissues even to paralysis, causing greatly increased
arterial tension and a slow and intermittent pulse. "Its action upon the heart is remarkable in that it produces vigorous systolic contraction, which become very irregular, one portion of the ventricle dilating while another remains in a states of contraction; finally, the heart stops in systole." -(T. F. Allen.)
It also secondarily produces functional derangements of the brain, the kidneys, and the digestive apparatus. The chief characteristic of Digitalis is its extremely slow, intermittent pulse.
In its homoeopathic use, this medicine need only be given in the smallest dose, and if even such a dose should produce too violent effects, repeated smelling of a solution of Camphor will serve to moderate its action. Nux vomica and Opium are also said to have been found useful as antidotes.
Eye troubles after tobacco, jaundice from induration and hypertrophy of the liver.
Jaundice with heart disease.
CAUSATION
Ill effects of high living, sexual abuse or excess, alcohol.
MODALITIES
Better when stomach is empty. in open air ,from rest, cool air. lying flat on back, sitting erect.
Worse from exertion, lying on left side, smell of food. from cold, drinks, food, weather, heat. sexual
abuse or excess. when sitting erect after meals and music. night or on waking in the morning. spirituous liquors. Motion aggravates most symptoms. Worse from being raised up in bed. Worse from touch or pressure. Worse from music, sadness from music.
CLINICAL CONDITIONS
Amaurosis. Angina pectoris. Ascites. Asthma. Bright's disease. Cyanosis. Delirium tremens. Dropsy. Fevers. Gonorrhea. Headache. Heart disorders. Hydrocele. Hydrocephalus. Impotence. Jaundice. Lungs, congestion. Melancholy. Memory lost. Meningitis. Noises in head. Phimosis. Prostate, enlarged. Prostration. Ptyalism. Spermatorrhea. Toothache. Urinary disorders. Vision, disorders.
REGIONS
HEART; muscle. CIRCULATION [liver; lungs; stomach]. Occiput.
Genito-urinary organs, * Right side. Left side.
MIND
Great anxiety (Acon., Ars., Rhus tox.); about 6 P. M., with dread of the future. Apprehensive; sad with great depression; extremely aggravated by music (Sabin.) Thinking difficult, and weakness of memory (Anac., Kreos., Lach., Nux m., Natr. mur., Phos. ac.).
VERTIGO
Vertigo, when walking or riding with trembling, worse rising up from cardiac or hepatic disorders.
HEAD
Confusion and heaviness of the head. Vertigo; with anxiety and faintness (Acon.), on rising from sitting (Bry., Sulph.), with very slow pulse. Head constantly falls backwards while sitting and walking, as from
paralysis of cervical muscles (Agar.). Sudden cracking noise in the head during siesta, with starting, as in a fright. Head heavy, confused, as if full. Throbbing headache in the forehead (Bell., Cinch.).
EYES
Pupils dilated and insensible (Bell., Cic., Hyos., Op., Stram.).
FACE
Face pale; sickly, death-like expression (Ars.).Cyanosis, Asphyxia neonatarum
STOMACH
Extreme thirst (Acon., Bry.). Deathly nausea (Ant. tart., Ipec., Lob.); vomiting with irregular feeble pulse. Faintness or sinking at the stomach; feels as if he were dying (Tabac.). Extreme anxiety in the epigastrium, causing frequent deep sighs. Extreme sensitiveness in epigastrium (Bell., Bry., Lyc.).
Much thirst, but little appetite. Thirst for acid drinks. Drinks much and eats little.
Desire for bitter things. Bitter taste of bread. Want of appetite, sometimes even with a clean tongue. Continuous thirst with dry lips.
LIVER
Jaundice from induration and hypertrophy of the liver. Jaundice with heart disease. Liver, enlarged, sore, hard painful.
RECTUM.
White, chalk-like, ashy, pasty stool. Diarrhea during jaundice.
MALE
Dropsical swelling of genitals. (Sulph.) Testicles swollen. Hydrocele (left), scrotum looks like a bladder filled with water. Bruise-like pain in testes with swelling. Gonorrhea, balanitis with edema of prepuce. Profuse thick yellow white gonorrheal discharge. Desire strongly excited, frequent erections and pollutions. Atonic nightly emissions after sex. Early morning erections. Amorous desire without ability. As if something were running out in urethra after emission. Prostate enlarged, senile.
FEMALE
Menopausal period, sudden flushes of heat followed by great debility, least motion causes palpitations. Labor-like pains in abdomen and back before menses. Uterine hemorrhage. Vicarious menses from the lungs. Nymphomania. Menorrhagia.
HEART
Attacks of angina worse raising arms. The least movement causes violent palpitation and sensation as if it would cease beating, if he moves, must hold the breath and keep still. Opposite of Gels. Palpitations with
depression from grief. Cyanosis. Frequent stitches in heart. Sudden sensation as if heart stood still. Irregular heart especially of mitral disease. Cardiac dropsy. Pulse weak and quickened by least movement. Pulse, slow, weak, irregular intermittent. Cardiac failure following fevers. Heart tired after sprains. Dilated heart. Hypertrophy with dilatation. Pericarditis, copious serous exudation.
Pulse small, weak and excessively slow (esp. when at rest, every other beat intermits), but accelerated by the slightest movement. Pulse irregular intermitting.
KUB
Continued urging in drops, dark, hot, burning with sharp cutting or throbbing pain at neck of bladder, as if a straw was being thrust back and forth, worse at night. Suppressed. Ammoniacal and turbid. Full
feeling after urination. Urethritis, phimosis and strangury. Constriction and burning, as if urethra was too small. Brick-dust sediment. Urine, suppressed, difficult. Uremia, contracted kidneys.
Constant urging to urinate, with scanty discharge (Ars., Apis, Coloc.). Frequent urination at night (Ambra., Borax., Coni., Phos. ac, Sep.). Dragging in bladder as if distended, not relieved by frequent micturition. After micturition pressure in bladder and burning in urethra. Functions of kidneys suspended. Urine scanty, dark, turbid (Canth., Chel., Cina); depositing a red sediment.
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
Dyspnea, constant desire to breathe deeply, lungs feel compressed. Breathing slow, worse talking, walking, drinking cold things. Breathing irregular, difficult, deep sighing. Cough causes pain in shoulders and arms
or sore, raw feeling in the chest. Chronic bronchitis, passive congestion of the lungs, giving bloody sputum due to failing myocardium. cannot bear to talk. Expectoration, sweetish like boiled starch, mixed with bloody
mucus. Hemoptysis with weak heart or from chronic bronchitis, before menses. Senile pneumonia. Cannot expectorate without vomiting. Great weakness in the chest, cannot bear to talk. Suffocates when he drops to sleep, hence fear of suffocation at night. Cough from suppressed menses.
SLEEP
Starts from sleep in alarm that he is falling from a height in a dream. Continuous sleepiness during the day (lethargy). Uneasy, Unrefreshing sleep. Drowsiness in the day and somnolency interrupted by fits of convulsive vomiting. At night, half-asleep with agitation. Uneasy sleep at night on account of constant desire to urinate.
FEVER
Great coldness of the skin. Coldness of the extremities. Cold, clammy, copious perspiration (Ars., Camph.).
THERAPEUTICS
The chief use of Digitalis is in the treatment of organic disease of the heart. With the old school it is used, indiscriminately, in large doses as a "cardiac sedative." Given in this manner it will often afford prompt
temporary relief, but the ultimate results are disastrous, the drug soon producing its characteristic physiological effects, weakness of the heart muscles, dilitation, etc., and thus hastening a fatal termination. Digitalis should only be employed in small doses, and only when its symptoms correspond to those of the individual case. These symptoms have already been detailed, the most important being a great anxiety and oppression, dyspnoea, sudden sensation as if the heart stool still, pulse feeble, irregular; fluttering, intermittent, or extremely slow; any motion, especially rising from a bed or chair, causes the pulse to become rapid, weak and jerky, sometimes cyanosis and even syncope. With this class of symptoms Digitalis may be indicated in any from of cardiac disease, but it is especially useful in pericarditis with effusion, and in all forms of dropsy of cardiac orgin; hydrothorax; emphysema, etc. Aneurism. Cyanosis. Digitalis is frequently indicated in inflammatory diseases of the kidneys, when the urine is suppressed, and there is pulmonary oedema, and threatened heart failure. Nephritis, especially after scarlet fever- post-scarletinal dropsy; also useful in cystitis, especially inflammation of the neck of the bladder, with frequent urging and
scanty discharge, strangury. Urethritis; glans penis swollen and covered with thick pus (gonorrhoea); chordee; also with oedematous infiltration of the penis and scrotum."
Digitalis is sometimes required in seminal weakness, with weak heart; involuntary emissions at night, with or without dreams. Chronic elongation of the prostate glands. Hydrocele. Amenorrhoea, with cardiac disease, and pulmonary haemorrhages. Pneumonia of old people, with prune juice expectoration, symptoms of collapse and heart failure. OEdema of the lungs and effusion into the pleural sac, with great dyspnoea and weak heart.
Digitalis may be useful in jaundice; often when associated with an enlarged and indurated liver; soreness over the liver, slow or irregular pulse; urine scanty and high-colored; ashy white stools. Not useful in jaundice fromretention of bile by obstruction, but when the liver fails to remove the coloring matter of bile from the blood. (In jaundice compare Myrica cerifera). Ascites from hepatic disease, with weak heart. Incarcerated hernia. Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Spinal anaemia resulting from seminal emissions, with the characteristic weak heart. Digitalis is often a valuable remedy in Meningitis, during the stage of effusion with dark, turbid urine and characteristic heart symptoms; also with errors in vision, such as
bright balls of fire, objects appear of various colors; later amaurotic congestion of retina, pupils dilated, and insensible to light and coma. Useful in detached retina; also in anaemia of the retina and optic nerve.
List of references;
1. Allen .H. C.—Key Notes on Materia Medica..
2. Boger. C.M - A Synoptic to the Materia Medica
3. Boricke . W- A Pocket manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica
4. Burnett . C –Best of Burnett, compiled by Dr.H.L.Chitkara.
5. Clarke. J.H – Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica.
6. Farrington . E. A. – Clinical Materia Medica.
7. Hering .C – The Guiding symptoms of our MM.
8. Kent. J. T. Lectures on Materia Medica.
9. Murphy .R - Lotus Materia Medica.
10. Nash. E.B - Expanded work, Compiled by Dr. P. Sivaraman
Tincture from the leaves of the second year of the plant.
HAHNEMANN was assisted in this proving by BECHER , FRANZ , GROSS, HORNBURG, LANGHAMMER, J.G. LEHMANN, MEYER, E.F. RUCKERT, STAPF, TEUTHORN.
[The proving in the Fragmenta was made with the expressed juice of the leaves.
In the Mat. Med. Pura Hahnemann directs the seeds to be used for making the tincture, in the Chronic Diseases the entire plant.]
1. HAHNEMANN, Fragmenta de Viribus. Contains 23 symptoms obtained by self and 33 from authors.
2. IBID., Mat. Med. Pura, vol. iv of original, vol. i of translation. Contains 73 symptoms from self, 224 from ten fellow-provers, and 131 from authors.
3. IBID., Chronic Diseases, part iii of original, vol. of translation. Contains 300 fresh symptoms, from 3 new observers and from Jorg (see i, 7-14 here).
This plant, which grows wild on open mountainous plateaux, is one of the most powerful medicinal substances of the vegetable kingdom; it has been frequently abused by the physicians of the old school, who sought to gainconsideration through violent action on the patient, without considering of
what nature this action might be; for they had not knowledge sufficient to apply this remedy to the various diseases for which it it suitable.
Digitalis acts profoundly upon the muscular substance of the heart and arteries through the pneumogastric and the vaso-motor nerves, producing debility of these tissues even to paralysis, causing greatly increased
arterial tension and a slow and intermittent pulse. "Its action upon the heart is remarkable in that it produces vigorous systolic contraction, which become very irregular, one portion of the ventricle dilating while another remains in a states of contraction; finally, the heart stops in systole." -(T. F. Allen.)
It also secondarily produces functional derangements of the brain, the kidneys, and the digestive apparatus. The chief characteristic of Digitalis is its extremely slow, intermittent pulse.
In its homoeopathic use, this medicine need only be given in the smallest dose, and if even such a dose should produce too violent effects, repeated smelling of a solution of Camphor will serve to moderate its action. Nux vomica and Opium are also said to have been found useful as antidotes.
Eye troubles after tobacco, jaundice from induration and hypertrophy of the liver.
Jaundice with heart disease.
CAUSATION
Ill effects of high living, sexual abuse or excess, alcohol.
MODALITIES
Better when stomach is empty. in open air ,from rest, cool air. lying flat on back, sitting erect.
Worse from exertion, lying on left side, smell of food. from cold, drinks, food, weather, heat. sexual
abuse or excess. when sitting erect after meals and music. night or on waking in the morning. spirituous liquors. Motion aggravates most symptoms. Worse from being raised up in bed. Worse from touch or pressure. Worse from music, sadness from music.
CLINICAL CONDITIONS
Amaurosis. Angina pectoris. Ascites. Asthma. Bright's disease. Cyanosis. Delirium tremens. Dropsy. Fevers. Gonorrhea. Headache. Heart disorders. Hydrocele. Hydrocephalus. Impotence. Jaundice. Lungs, congestion. Melancholy. Memory lost. Meningitis. Noises in head. Phimosis. Prostate, enlarged. Prostration. Ptyalism. Spermatorrhea. Toothache. Urinary disorders. Vision, disorders.
REGIONS
HEART; muscle. CIRCULATION [liver; lungs; stomach]. Occiput.
Genito-urinary organs, * Right side. Left side.
MIND
Great anxiety (Acon., Ars., Rhus tox.); about 6 P. M., with dread of the future. Apprehensive; sad with great depression; extremely aggravated by music (Sabin.) Thinking difficult, and weakness of memory (Anac., Kreos., Lach., Nux m., Natr. mur., Phos. ac.).
VERTIGO
Vertigo, when walking or riding with trembling, worse rising up from cardiac or hepatic disorders.
HEAD
Confusion and heaviness of the head. Vertigo; with anxiety and faintness (Acon.), on rising from sitting (Bry., Sulph.), with very slow pulse. Head constantly falls backwards while sitting and walking, as from
paralysis of cervical muscles (Agar.). Sudden cracking noise in the head during siesta, with starting, as in a fright. Head heavy, confused, as if full. Throbbing headache in the forehead (Bell., Cinch.).
EYES
Pupils dilated and insensible (Bell., Cic., Hyos., Op., Stram.).
FACE
Face pale; sickly, death-like expression (Ars.).Cyanosis, Asphyxia neonatarum
STOMACH
Extreme thirst (Acon., Bry.). Deathly nausea (Ant. tart., Ipec., Lob.); vomiting with irregular feeble pulse. Faintness or sinking at the stomach; feels as if he were dying (Tabac.). Extreme anxiety in the epigastrium, causing frequent deep sighs. Extreme sensitiveness in epigastrium (Bell., Bry., Lyc.).
Much thirst, but little appetite. Thirst for acid drinks. Drinks much and eats little.
Desire for bitter things. Bitter taste of bread. Want of appetite, sometimes even with a clean tongue. Continuous thirst with dry lips.
LIVER
Jaundice from induration and hypertrophy of the liver. Jaundice with heart disease. Liver, enlarged, sore, hard painful.
RECTUM.
White, chalk-like, ashy, pasty stool. Diarrhea during jaundice.
MALE
Dropsical swelling of genitals. (Sulph.) Testicles swollen. Hydrocele (left), scrotum looks like a bladder filled with water. Bruise-like pain in testes with swelling. Gonorrhea, balanitis with edema of prepuce. Profuse thick yellow white gonorrheal discharge. Desire strongly excited, frequent erections and pollutions. Atonic nightly emissions after sex. Early morning erections. Amorous desire without ability. As if something were running out in urethra after emission. Prostate enlarged, senile.
FEMALE
Menopausal period, sudden flushes of heat followed by great debility, least motion causes palpitations. Labor-like pains in abdomen and back before menses. Uterine hemorrhage. Vicarious menses from the lungs. Nymphomania. Menorrhagia.
HEART
Attacks of angina worse raising arms. The least movement causes violent palpitation and sensation as if it would cease beating, if he moves, must hold the breath and keep still. Opposite of Gels. Palpitations with
depression from grief. Cyanosis. Frequent stitches in heart. Sudden sensation as if heart stood still. Irregular heart especially of mitral disease. Cardiac dropsy. Pulse weak and quickened by least movement. Pulse, slow, weak, irregular intermittent. Cardiac failure following fevers. Heart tired after sprains. Dilated heart. Hypertrophy with dilatation. Pericarditis, copious serous exudation.
Pulse small, weak and excessively slow (esp. when at rest, every other beat intermits), but accelerated by the slightest movement. Pulse irregular intermitting.
KUB
Continued urging in drops, dark, hot, burning with sharp cutting or throbbing pain at neck of bladder, as if a straw was being thrust back and forth, worse at night. Suppressed. Ammoniacal and turbid. Full
feeling after urination. Urethritis, phimosis and strangury. Constriction and burning, as if urethra was too small. Brick-dust sediment. Urine, suppressed, difficult. Uremia, contracted kidneys.
Constant urging to urinate, with scanty discharge (Ars., Apis, Coloc.). Frequent urination at night (Ambra., Borax., Coni., Phos. ac, Sep.). Dragging in bladder as if distended, not relieved by frequent micturition. After micturition pressure in bladder and burning in urethra. Functions of kidneys suspended. Urine scanty, dark, turbid (Canth., Chel., Cina); depositing a red sediment.
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
Dyspnea, constant desire to breathe deeply, lungs feel compressed. Breathing slow, worse talking, walking, drinking cold things. Breathing irregular, difficult, deep sighing. Cough causes pain in shoulders and arms
or sore, raw feeling in the chest. Chronic bronchitis, passive congestion of the lungs, giving bloody sputum due to failing myocardium. cannot bear to talk. Expectoration, sweetish like boiled starch, mixed with bloody
mucus. Hemoptysis with weak heart or from chronic bronchitis, before menses. Senile pneumonia. Cannot expectorate without vomiting. Great weakness in the chest, cannot bear to talk. Suffocates when he drops to sleep, hence fear of suffocation at night. Cough from suppressed menses.
SLEEP
Starts from sleep in alarm that he is falling from a height in a dream. Continuous sleepiness during the day (lethargy). Uneasy, Unrefreshing sleep. Drowsiness in the day and somnolency interrupted by fits of convulsive vomiting. At night, half-asleep with agitation. Uneasy sleep at night on account of constant desire to urinate.
FEVER
Great coldness of the skin. Coldness of the extremities. Cold, clammy, copious perspiration (Ars., Camph.).
THERAPEUTICS
The chief use of Digitalis is in the treatment of organic disease of the heart. With the old school it is used, indiscriminately, in large doses as a "cardiac sedative." Given in this manner it will often afford prompt
temporary relief, but the ultimate results are disastrous, the drug soon producing its characteristic physiological effects, weakness of the heart muscles, dilitation, etc., and thus hastening a fatal termination. Digitalis should only be employed in small doses, and only when its symptoms correspond to those of the individual case. These symptoms have already been detailed, the most important being a great anxiety and oppression, dyspnoea, sudden sensation as if the heart stool still, pulse feeble, irregular; fluttering, intermittent, or extremely slow; any motion, especially rising from a bed or chair, causes the pulse to become rapid, weak and jerky, sometimes cyanosis and even syncope. With this class of symptoms Digitalis may be indicated in any from of cardiac disease, but it is especially useful in pericarditis with effusion, and in all forms of dropsy of cardiac orgin; hydrothorax; emphysema, etc. Aneurism. Cyanosis. Digitalis is frequently indicated in inflammatory diseases of the kidneys, when the urine is suppressed, and there is pulmonary oedema, and threatened heart failure. Nephritis, especially after scarlet fever- post-scarletinal dropsy; also useful in cystitis, especially inflammation of the neck of the bladder, with frequent urging and
scanty discharge, strangury. Urethritis; glans penis swollen and covered with thick pus (gonorrhoea); chordee; also with oedematous infiltration of the penis and scrotum."
Digitalis is sometimes required in seminal weakness, with weak heart; involuntary emissions at night, with or without dreams. Chronic elongation of the prostate glands. Hydrocele. Amenorrhoea, with cardiac disease, and pulmonary haemorrhages. Pneumonia of old people, with prune juice expectoration, symptoms of collapse and heart failure. OEdema of the lungs and effusion into the pleural sac, with great dyspnoea and weak heart.
Digitalis may be useful in jaundice; often when associated with an enlarged and indurated liver; soreness over the liver, slow or irregular pulse; urine scanty and high-colored; ashy white stools. Not useful in jaundice fromretention of bile by obstruction, but when the liver fails to remove the coloring matter of bile from the blood. (In jaundice compare Myrica cerifera). Ascites from hepatic disease, with weak heart. Incarcerated hernia. Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Spinal anaemia resulting from seminal emissions, with the characteristic weak heart. Digitalis is often a valuable remedy in Meningitis, during the stage of effusion with dark, turbid urine and characteristic heart symptoms; also with errors in vision, such as
bright balls of fire, objects appear of various colors; later amaurotic congestion of retina, pupils dilated, and insensible to light and coma. Useful in detached retina; also in anaemia of the retina and optic nerve.
List of references;
1. Allen .H. C.—Key Notes on Materia Medica..
2. Boger. C.M - A Synoptic to the Materia Medica
3. Boricke . W- A Pocket manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica
4. Burnett . C –Best of Burnett, compiled by Dr.H.L.Chitkara.
5. Clarke. J.H – Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica.
6. Farrington . E. A. – Clinical Materia Medica.
7. Hering .C – The Guiding symptoms of our MM.
8. Kent. J. T. Lectures on Materia Medica.
9. Murphy .R - Lotus Materia Medica.
10. Nash. E.B - Expanded work, Compiled by Dr. P. Sivaraman
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