RANUNCULUS [Ran-b]:

- M.L.Tyler.

Buttercup.

Introduction:
Who, coming on a field, golden in the springtime with buttercups, would dream of their poisonous properties and therefore their power of curing painful and intractable conditions, such as shingles can be? It is because of one's happy experiences in the cure of shingles with Ranunculus bulb. that one is impelled, now in the springtime, to honour them, and to spread the knowledge of their devastating, and, therefore, healing power. In the course of years one has had many cases of herpes zoster to treat, and fails to remember a Ranunc. case where a few doses of a high potency did not wipe the trouble out in a couple of days--pain and all. In some cases, where the pain is burning and relieved by heat, with great restlessness and anxiety, Ars. would be the remedy; and many doctors swear by Mezereum. But even in the aged, and with extreme pain, one has seen the trouble simply wiped out and the pain which doctors have told patients would go on for the rest of their lives, have promptly ceased: we gave such a case recently in this Journal. But, one must not forget Variolinum, which, for Burnett, "wiped the trouble out, pain and all" and which is the more interesting because in these days, herpes zoster is associated with chicken pox. One remembers one terrible case, which had been under old school treatment, with extreme pain and great deformity, including the destruction of an eye, where the patient improved so far as pain was concerned, but ceased to come, because her eye, with its scarring and bulging hernia, was not restored. In regard to its chest symptoms, one needs to diagnose between Ranunc. bulb. and Bryonia. Both have the stitching pains, worse from movement: but Bry. wants pressure on the suffering chest, to keep it still, while Ranunc. cannot bear touch or pressure. Again Bry. is worse in the dry, cold weather; Ranunc. in wet weather. The aetiology of Acon. is also "dry cold"-- sudden attacks from exposure to dry, cold winds. While Arnica, that great remedy of pleurodynia, with its stitching pains that will not allow a deep breath to be drawn; with its sore, lame, bruised beaten sensations, is not particularly affected by cold or heat, damp or dry, but is physically over-sensitive, and finds the bed intolerably hard.
BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS
Headache over right eye; worse lying, walking and standing. Pressure and smarting in eyeballs. Pain in both hypochondria, with painfulness to touch. In the evening, both hypochondria and lowest ribs in chest, feels painful, as if bruised. Stitching with pressure, right abdomen, in region of the last true rib (liver) arresting breathing, with stitches and pressure on the top of right shoulder. Chest: stitches, neuralgic, myalgic, or rheumatic pains in chest. Pleurodynia, rheumatic, myalgic or neuralgic. Pressure and tightness across lower part of chest, with fine stitches, felt first in outer parts of chest, then extend deep into the chest, now in the right, now in the left chest: increased by moving, stooping, or taking an inspiration. The breathing is painful, even contact is painful. Stitches left side above the nipple, in a space the size of a hand, worse during contact and motion. Violent fine stitches in the middle of left chest, in front, during inspiration, in the forenoon. Burning and fine stitches left chest. Pain, as if bruised, in region of short rib, with pain in back, lassitude, ill-humour. Violent sticking in right side chest, region of 5th and 7th ribs, arresting breathing, with stitches and pressure on the top of right shoulder. Sticking pain in right side chest, region of 5th and 6th ribs, with great sensitiveness of the spot to touch and great debility. Stitches about chest in every change of weather. Chest feels sore, bruised; worse touch, motion, turning body. Intercostal or spinal neuralgia, pleurodynia. Rheumatism of muscles, especially muscles about trunk: intercostal rheumatism: muscles sore to touch: as if they had been pounded. Shingles and intercostal neuralgia. Small, deep, transparent, dark-blue, little elevated blisters, blue, transparent vesicles. (Crowded together in oval shaped groups, with intolerable burning itching.).
ITALICS; IMPORTANT, OR CURIOUS AND SUGGESTIVE SYM
PTOMS Herpes zoster supra-orbitalis, with bluish black vesicles and the usual pains. Hay fever, eyes smart, lids burn and are sore ; nose stuffed, with tingling and crawling inside; or in posterior nares, patient hawks and swallows, and tries in every way to scratch the affected part; ? neck of bladder also affected, with burning during micturition. Pain about lungs from adhesions after pleurisy. (Bry.). Pain in whole chest, as of a subcutaneous ulceration, on slight motion of trunk. Violent sticking pain above left nipple, near axilla, when rising in a.m. Dares not move arm, or raise it, dares not even raise trunk lest he should scream with pain; has to sit or stand stooping, with head and chest forward to the left. Herpes or blister-like eruption palms; blue blisters on fingers. The well-covered chest is chilly out of doors. As if cold, wet cloths were applied to different parts of thorax; a knife thrust into side and through back. Crawling and creeping in scalp, nose, skin of fingers. Worse wet weather, change of weather, change of temperature. Herpes zoster; zona; vesicles filled with serum which burn, may have a bluish-black appearance, especially when following course of supra-orbital or intercostal nerves, and followed by sharp, stitching pains. Pain like that of shingles without eruption. Pemphigus, eczema. What have the Masters to say in regard to their personal experience with Ranunculus? NASH only says: "Blister-like eruptions on palms of hands." GUERNSEY gives: Biting or pungent pain ; pain as if parts would burst, were pressed or pushed asunder. Pustulous exanthema, blue-coloured. Waking too early in the morning. Affections of any kind of the external angles of the eyes ; hypochondrium, particularly about the spleen; lower region of abdomen; palms of the hands. Worse: entering a cold place ; from spirituous liquors; with drunkards; when stretching the limbs; at changes of temperature, whether from hot to cold, or vice versa. CLARKE (Dictionary) says : "Small, deep, transparent, dark blue little elevated blisters of the size of an ordinary pin's head, crowded together in oval shaped groups the size of a shilling, with intolerable burning, itching, emitting when opened a dark yellow lymph, afterwards becoming covered with a herpetic horny scurf: a complete picture of herpes. The pains, as well as the appearance of herpes are met with in the pathogenesis of Ranunc. bulb pains lancinating; pressing and outpressing; jerking and sticking ; as if bruised; with external sensitiveness." He says its hay fever symptoms have led to many cures of hay fever with Ranunc. bulb. "The general sensitiveness of Ranunc. bulb. to air--cold air-- change, the grand keynote of the remedy; another keynote is sensitiveness to touch--bruised soreness of the parts affected. "Ranunc. bulb. has proved one of the most effective agents for removing the bad effects of alcoholic drinks; hiccough; epileptiform attacks; delirium tremens. Quarrelsome, angry mood; and fear of ghosts." He gives a case of Burnett's in regard to the cold water feeling of Ranunc. bulb. A woman, after a fall two years before, had the peculiar sensation, whenever she goes out of doors feels as if wet cloths were applied to three different parts of anterior walls of thorax--both intraclavicular fossae, and under left breast. Ranunc. bulb. quickly cured. FARRINGTON has a good deal to say about Ranunc. bulb. and he gives valuable tips, which we have not found elsewhere except in the provings. We will quote, condensing. He says : "Compare with Acon., Arn., Cact., Bry., Rhus, Ars., Mez." "Both these plants" (bulbosus and sceleratus) "possess a juice or sap which is exceedingly irritating to the skin. Applied locally it produces erythema, followed by an eruption at first vesicular, and attended by burning, smarting and itching. If by reason of the intensity of the action of the drug, the symptoms continue, ulceration and even gangrene follow, the gangrene with fever and delirium. "Think of Ranunc. bulb. in its action on serous membranes, especially pleura and peritoneum, with stabbing pains in chest, and effusion of serum into one or other cavity, according as one or other membrane is inflamed. Accompanying this effusion we find great anxiety, dyspnoea and distress, caused partly by the accumulation of fluid, and partly by the anxiety from the pains themselves. Now, these symptoms are not commonly known among physicians, yet you will find that here Ranunculus will serve you as well as Apis, Bryonia or Sulphur, or even better than these, if the character of the pains just described is present." "Muscles." We find Ranunculus acting here as a curative agent. Particularly in muscles about the trunk. "Intercostal rheumatism yields far more quickly to this drug than to any other. There is usually a great deal of soreness to touch, the muscles feel bruised as if they had been pounded. I know that Aconite, Arnica or Bryonia is often given when Ranunculus is indicated." Ranunculus for persons who are subject to stitches about the chest in every change of weather. May be used for sore spots remaining in and about the chest after pneumonia. A feeling of subcutaneous ulceration. (Puls.) For pains from adhesions after pleurisy. For diaphragmitis with sharp shooting pains from hypochondria and epigastrium through the back. (Cactus.) Again for the bad effects of drink. Then, the skin. (We have given this fully in raged to herpes zoster.) But also pemphigus, with large blisters which burst and leave raw surfaces. In eczema, with thickening of the skin, and the formation of hard, horny scales. (Ant. crud.) Hay fever. (We have given.) Farrington warns us that Sulphur does not follow Ranunculus well. He says that Ranunc. sceleratus develops more markedly large isolated blisters. When these burst, an ulcer is formed, with very acrid discharge, making the surrounding parts sore. He says, even in diphtheria or typhoid it is indicated by denuded patches on the tongue, the remainder of the organ being coated. Nat. mur., Ars., Rhus and Tarax. have these patches ("Mapped tongue") but none of these remedies have the same amount of burning and rawness that Ranunc. sceleratus has. May be indicated in ordinary catarrhs with sneezing, fluent coryza, pains in joints, and burning on urination. H. C. ALLEN (Keynotes) stars off with. "one of our most effective remedies for the bad effects of alcoholic beverages; spasmodic hiccough, delirium tremens." After the stitches, etc., he gives: Pleurisy or pneumonia from sudden exposure to cold, while overheated (Acon., Arn.). Corns sensitive to touch ; smart, burn (Salicyl. a.) And so on, as already recorded. One recalls, very long ago, and before X-ray would inevitably have revealed the condition, a case of most extreme suffering, the pains being in the chest. The case was carefully gone into the from the symptomatic point of view, and after a few doses of Ranunc. bulb. the pain disappeared. The man, an in-patient, had been almost heart-broken because one of the surgeons who examined him had suggested malingering. His symptoms, had suggested the successful "like" prescription, and he went out happy and (apparently) well. A couple of years later he was readmitted for some acute illness--a septic pneumonia, as a matter of fact, and died. A post mortem was done, and revealed what occasioned a gasp of surprise:--a large aneurism which had caused the text-book wasting of several intervertebral discs. This fully accounted for the old pain, but not for its cessation. Ranunc. had done for that man what nothing else could have done : it had made life endurable, even where it could not cure. For Homoeopathy, "incurable" does not mean that no relief of suffering can be give. Far from it. BURNETT used to make play with Ranunc. sceleratus (the wicked buttercup). His indication was excessive external tenderness of chest. This, CLARKE says has led to the cure of many chest affections, including aneurism. But, the best-known characteristic of Ranunc. sc. (which is a well-proved drug) is the mapped or peeled tongue, and when this is associated with smarting, burning and rawness, Ranunc. sc. will be the remedy. (CLARKE.).