BRYONIA ALBUM
-VERMEULEN Frans,
Bry.
Work is not a curse, it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood,
And the measure of civilization. Savages do not work.
[Calvin Coolidge]
Signs
Bryonia alba. White Bryony. N.O. Cucurbitaceae.
CLASSIFICATION Bryonia belongs to the gourd family or Cucurbitaceae, a family of some 700 species in 120 genera. Highly specialized in habit, floral structure and biochemistry, the Cucurbitaceae generally are classified in a single-family order. Their botanical relationships are completely obscure and they are unrelated to the bulk of families amongst which they were once placed, in or near the Campanulales. ... Bitter substances, known as cucurbitacins, are widespread in the family. Many of the edible species occur in both bitter [inedible] and non-bitter [edible] variants. 1 A group of tetracyclic triterpenes, the bitter principles of cucurbits have antineoplastic and anti-gibberellin activities. [Gibberellins are plant-growth regulators.]
DISTRIBUTION Found in abundance in the tropics - particularly in rain forest areas of South America and wood-, grass- and bushland areas of Africa -, the family consists chiefly of trailing or climbing herbs with very rapid growth and an abundance of [milky] sap in their stems and other tissues. The family is poorly represented in Australasia and all temperate regions. Most members of the family do not tolerate frost or cold soil. Due to their great sensitiveness to temperatures near freezing, their geographic distribution and area of cultivation is limited. The family includes such economically important food plants as pumpkin, cucumber, gherkin, watermelon, muskmelon, summer squash, winter squash, chayote, gourd, courgette, and cassabanana. The fruit in most species is a fleshy, many-seeded berry with a tough rind, often attaining considerable size. The fruits of some wild species are important sources of food and water in the desert areas of southern Africa.
CLIMBERS Cucurbitaceae are tendril climbers, the tendrils representing modified shoots, usually one per node. The tendril tip curls round any suitable nearby object, such as a plant stem; the rest of the tendril then coils in a spring-like manner, drawing the stem in close to its support so that other shoots can the more easily attach themselves to it. If the support contracted by a tendril is unlikely to provide the kind of roughness needed for a secure grip, the tendril will unwind and resume its blind search.
GENUS The genus Bryonia comprises herbs or long-tendriled vines, included in about 12 species, that are native to Eurasia. Bryonia is common among hedges and in borders of woods, especially in calcareous soils. The annual plants are extremely fast growers, in one season quickly covering entire areas of hedges and undershrubs with their rough stems and leaves and even climbing to a height of several feet above them. The fleshy roots yield a milky juice when cut. The name Bryonia comes from Gr. bryo, to sprout, in allusion to the fast annual growth from the tuber.
HOME Bryonia alba has been described as English mandrake, no doubt erroneously since this species is not native to Britain. The English species in question is Bryonia dioica, or B. cretica, which has red berries instead of the black ones of Bryonia alba. Because both resemble a human figure, the roots of Bryonia have been offered in Britain by frauds as mandrake, Mandragora officinalis, which was thought to have magical powers. Apart from the colour of the berries, Bryonia alba differs from Bryonia dioica in being monoecious. The word monoecious derives from Gr. monos, one, and oecos, house, and refers to plants having male and female flowers on the same individual, or, so to speak, in one home. Although present on the same plant, the male and female reproductive organs are separated in different floral structures. This reduces the chances of self-fertilization and establishes the need for insect pollination. However, it decreases also the genetic variability in the population and enables isolated individuals to reproduce. Consequently, change [variability] is less vital for the monoecious Bryonia alba than for Bryonia dioica, which, as its specific name explains, has female and male sex organs separated on different individuals. Moreover, monoecious plants have a higher seed-setting efficiency than dioecious ones. In a family typically consisting of dioecious plants, monoecism is the exception and hence to be considered a peculiar of Bryonia alba. This botanical peculiarity is reflected in the mental symptoms of Bryonia alba connected with home and change. Bryonia alba therefore, homoeopathically, can not be substituted by Bryonia dioica.
EFFECTS When applied to the skin, the fresh Bryonia plant produces vesication and pustular eruption. It has been applied externally as a rubefacient for myalgia. Many species of the gourd family have been reported to produce mild to severe skin irritation following contact with their milky sap. The fruits of other species, e.g. Citrullus colocynthis and Ecballium elaterium, have drastic purgative properties that have been utilized medicinally. "The fresh root of bryonia is extremely irritating, occasioning blisters when bruised and kept in contact with the skin, and causing serious gastrointestinal inflammation when taken internally. A profuse and uncontrollable diarrhoea, vomiting, vertigo, reduction of temperature, dilatation of the pupils, cold perspiration, extremely small pulse, colic, collapse, and death have resulted from its use. Its influence on the nervous system is marked. A similar result follows the administration of large doses of the dried root. An infusion of galls is said to antidote it. This root appears to have been well known to the ancients, and was used in various maladies. It has likewise been employed in more recent times in convulsions due to the presence of worms in the intestines, as a cathartic in dropsy, and in cases of chronic inflammations, attended with glandular enlargements, or serous effusions."2
SYMBOLISM In Roman symbolism the pumpkin is stupidity, empty-headedness and madness. Correspondingly, in Shakespeare's Merry Wives a member of the gourd family is presented as a metaphor for empty-headedness: 'We'll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross watery pumpion; we'll teach him to know turtles from jays.' This 'emptiness' has its parallel in the low nutritional value of the gourd family. In Bryonia, the fleshy fruit is reduced to a medium-sized berry. "Although their different varieties, pumpkins for example, are emblems of stupidity to Western eyes, some African initiates eat their seeds as symbols of intelligence. It is however true that the gourd remains after its seeds have been removed. ... Gourds grow in the isles of the Immortals, but they also help in the journey there, and to Heaven as well."3 In Jonah 4: 6-7, the gourd expresses apparently contradictory decisions of God. "And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered." If God's reactions cannot be foreseen, nothing can be foreseen, making mankind suffer from this insecurity and this lack of logic, "or rather from a logic of which it cannot decipher the secrets. The sudden growth and death of the gourd are symbols of this. Human logic cannot grasp the incoherence of things and the absurdity of events; but they are amenable to a different logic. What happened to the gourd suggests to mankind that it should not trust to its dialectic alone, since there is another superior to it."4
PARALLELS "The most eye-catching qualities of this family are the gigantic, watery swellings, the creeping-crawling-support seeking properties and their need for a warm surrounding. Where in the human body do we find an equivalent of these qualities? According to anthroposophical medicine, the healing properties of this family correlate to the area of metabolism, the alimentary tract, and the intestines. One can imagine why. The part of the human body in which the liquids are pre-eminent, in which water and nutrients are assimilated, is the metres-long intestine which twists its way to its destination. [To make the picture complete, support is given by the abdominal muscles.] The better known remedies of this family have the bulk of their symptoms in the abdominal area. The few symptoms we have of the lesser known remedies all relate to the abdomen."5
HOMOEOPATHY Homoeopathy employs species of the following genera: Bryonia, Citrullus, Cucumis, Cucurbita, Ecballium, Luffa, Momordica, and Trichosanthes. Of these, Bryonia, Citrullus, and Ecballium are closest related to each other since they belong to the same tribe.
PROVINGS •• [1] Hahnemann - 7 provers; method: unknown.
•• [2] Austrian proving - 19 provers [17 males, 2 females], 1844 [in this proving also results with Bryonia dioica are included!]; method: increasing doses of tincture of the root; increasing doses of 1x dil.; also with 'the dilutions beginning with the 8x and descending to the 1x.'
•• [3] Mezger and Pirtkien - 47 provers, 1957-58; method: 1x, 3x, 4x, or 6x, three times daily 5 drops during first week, three times daily 10 drops during second week, and three times daily 15 drops during third [and last] week.
[1] Heywood, Flowering Plants of the World. [2] King's American Dispensatory. [3-4] Chevalier and Gheerbrant, Dictionary of Symbols. [5] Ruarus, The Cucurbitacea: A brief essay; HL 5/99.
Affinity
CIRCULATION. Liver. SEROUS MEMBRANES [HEAD - meninges; CHEST - pleura, pericardium; JOINTS; ABDOMEN]. Motor apparatus [nerves; muscles]. Blood. Lymphatics. Cellular tissue. Synovia. * RIGHT SIDE. Left side.
Modalities
Worse: MOTION [RISING - from lying; STOOPING; EXERTION; COUGHING; DEEP BREATHING; jar; sneezing; swallowing; motion of eyes]. HOT [BECOMING; ROOM; weather; summer]. Drinking, while hot. EATING. Vegetables. Acids. VEXATION. Touch. Suppressions [eruptions]. Taking cold. Lying on painless side. Ascending. Morning. During sleep. Closing eyes. COLD [becoming; cold dry weather].
Better: PRESSURE [LYING ON PAINFUL PART; bandage, etc.]. COLD AIR. When QUIET. Cloudy, damp days. Drawing knees up. Heat to inflamed part. Dark room. Cold water. Cold food. Eructations.
Main symptoms
M People firmly rooted in the material world, objective and business-like, not much by emotions, sentimental feelings or imaginative power, but nonetheless with a strong desire for security and support, which they try to find in money and property. When lacking this sure ground, they become irritable, anxious and sad.
• "The typical Bryonia personality is not the artist or scientist or philosopher, the explorer of beauty or the unknown, who disregards the material basis of his existence to reach out into lofty heights. It is the businessman, the insurance man, the stockbroker, the man without much imagination but with much calculation; a dry fellow, sober, reliable, methodical, tenacious, weighing his steps, concerned in everything he does with safety, stability, security. Lacking a safe basis for his economic existence he becomes irritable, angry, anxious, depressed, always on the lookout for something which promises a hold to provide stability and security. ...Worried about his security, he holds on to his back, he holds on to his belly, he holds on to his pocket-book."1
• "Rich and competent though he is, he fears poverty, he may be slow on the uptake but how persistent; he can follow through with large projects, his obstinacy is an aid, his choleric disposition an added strength. The Bryonia types are not negative; they are a bursting people which their pains symbolise. They are better under pressure, in mind as in body. They are a mighty folk and can produce real end results in the world."2
• "His depression started after he stopped working. He cannot accept the fact that he is unable to work anymore. His work was his hobby and now he feels he is a misfit. 'I sit behind the window, and other people see me walking around and I have less income than them.' Regarding his income he says he had always tried to improve his turnover. He had changed his job several times in order to make more money."3
M FEAR OF POVERTY.
TALKS CONTINUOUSLY ABOUT HIS BUSINESS.
Constant worrying about money.
• "Dreams all night very vividly of anxious and careful attention to his business."
• "In his dreams he is occupied with household affairs." [Hahnemann]
M Irritability when disturbed; wants to be let alone.
• "Cross; imagined she could not finish her work." "Too busy; she wishes to undertake and to work at too many things." [Hahnemann]
• "Bryonia patients are withdrawn into themselves, purposely isolated from social contact. Always in the background is a deep feeling of insecurity, a sense of vulnerability and weakness. It is this that leads them to seek isolation. They do not want to be intruded upon, and they are quite content to live alone. ... It seems to me that the insecurity arises out of the lack of social contact in Bryonia patients. They do not allow themselves the sense of security that can be derived from family, friends, community, etc. Bryonia patients are responsible people; they usually take the greatest share of responsibility for their families, for instance, but then they wonder who will take care of them in case of financial disaster. They feel unsupported and insecure." [Vithoulkas]
M < Thunderstorm. • "A thunderstorm represents the idea of an increased tension, to the point that all the stored up energy is discharged. Both Colocynthis and Bryonia fear thunderstorms, and it is interesting that this symptom is also present in the Cucurbita melo case."4 c Augustus Caesar reportedly wore a wreath of Bryony during thunderstorms to protect himself from lightning. G WARM-BLOODED. General < warmth, summer; > cool open air, cold drinks.
G Ailments from chilling when overheated;
when warm weather sets in after cold days;
after cold drinks or ice in hot weather.
G Appropriate to persons "who overeat or eat excessively of meat, and have strong constitutions." [Clarke]
Digestive troubles from beans, peas, cabbage, bread, flatulent food, fruit.
< Fruit. [cold fruit; melons; pears; stewed fruit; strawberries] G THIRST for LARGE QUANTITIES of COLD WATER. G < MOTION. < MOTION of AFFECTED part. > Rest and when quiet.
• "'Aggravation by motion' has long been a phrase applied to Bryonia cases, and so we find in these cases a lethargy induced more by a desire to remain quiet than one of dulness, as is noticeable when Belladonna is required. The patient is languid, torpid, tired, and has little inclination to go about. A general deficiency of nervous balance is observable, and every effort tends to induce perspiration. With this may or may not be associated the Bryonia headache, pain from the frontal region to the occipital base; thinking is an effort, and the patient is irritable if disturbed."5
• "Prevention of movement, of the free flow of secretions and discharges underlies likewise the etiological factors which are known to provoke the mentioned pathological conditions: checking of perspiration, of the menstrual flow, of milk-secretion, of exanthemata. Anger and its suppression are known as etiological factors of syndromes calling for Bryonia. Suppressed resentment and hostility are now considered as of etiological importance in rheumatoid arthritis which often exhibits the typical Bryonia symptoms. Bryonia has produced in animals bile stasis with subsequent degeneration of liver cells. Also, in the emotional sphere, a process of inhibition of the free flow, of the moving of emotions is indicative of the action of Bryonia."6
G > PRESSURE; lying on PAINFUL side.
> Keeping still.
Has to hold head or chest when coughing.
G < HEAT, except headache and pain in stomach. G < MORNING ON RISING [= first movements] [vertigo, headache, etc.]. c Early morning aggravation of sleep, general state, and digestive troubles were confirmed in Mezger's proving. G > PERSPIRATION.
G > WET weather.
G EXCESSIVE DRYNESS of MUCOUS MEMBRANES.
[dry, parched, cracked lips; stool hard, large and dry as if burnt; sensation of stone in stomach]
G STITCHING PAINS, < motion, > rest.
G Slow onset of acute complaints.
[1] Gutman, Bryonia alba; BHJ April 1961. [2] Wright Hubbard, The Intellectual Remedies; Homoeopathy, May 1968.
[3] Verkerk, Redundant; What is my future? HL 5/99. [4] Van der Zee, Themes of the Cucurbitaceae; HL 5/99.
[5] King's American Dispensatory. [6] Gutman, ibid.
Rubrics
Mind
Ailments from hurry [2]; from violence [2]. Anxiety, compelled to do something [2/1]; driving from place to place [1]; about money matters [2]; from thinking about it [1]. Desire for change [2]. Confusion > eructations [1], when lying [1], > yawning [1/1]. Delusions of being away from home and having to get there [3]; that she cannot accomplish her work [1]. Desires more than she needs [1]. Dulness when spoken to [1]. Fear of starving [2]. Irritability, wishes to be alone [1]. Loquacity about business [2].
Vertigo
During constipation [1]. As if sinking down in bed [2].
Head
Pain, morning on waking, on first opening eyes [2], increasing gradually [1], motion of eyelids [2], before thunderstorms [1]. Swollen feeling, occiput [1].
Eye
Lachrymation from light of sun [1]. Sensation of protrusion [1]. Sensation as if eyes were smaller [1].
Vision
Colours, blue haze [2/1]. Dim, > twilight [1].
Nose
Imaginary odour of manure [1].
Face
Chewing motion of jaw during sleep [1]. Twitching around mouth [1].
Throat
Dryness, speaking very difficult [1]. Food is felt through oesophagus until it enters the stomach [1]. Pain, on turning the head [1].
Stomach
Appetite ravenous after nausea [1/1]. Fulness after sweets [1*]. Heartburn after sweets [1*], after wine [1]. Nausea after beer [1], after coffee [1], > drinking [3]. Vomiting of food, not of drinks [2].
Rectum
Constipation, unable to pass stool in presence of nurse [1], at seaside [1], from sedentary habits [2]. Diarrhoea from draft of air [1], > all symptoms [1], after cabbage [1], after chagrin [1], after stewed fruit [1], after ice cream [1], > lying on back [2], after sauerkraut [2], while at seaside [1], in spring [2]. Urging on tightening clothing [1/1].
Female
Menses suppressed, in emigrants [1], after being heated [2].
Cough
Bending head backward < [2]. Limbs Pain > perspiration [2], rheumatic, during first days of warm weather [1/1].
Sleep
Aversion to rise after waking [1]. Waking with numbness [1].
Dreams
Household [2]. Hunger [1]. Soldiers [1].
Skin
Eruptions, urticaria from strawberries [1/1]. Itching on excitement [1].
* Repertory additions [Mezger].
Food
Aversion: [2]: Coffee; fats and rich food; food; meat; milk. [1]: Beer; cabbage; cold water; eggs, hard boiled; smoking; tobacco; warm drinks; water.
Desire: [3]: Cold drinks; warm drinks. [2]: Beer; coffee; meat; milk, warm; oysters; pungent; sour; strange things; sweets; sweets and sour; wine. [1]: Alcohol; brandy; cabbage; cold food; indigestible things; liquid food; milk; soup.
Worse: [3]: Beans and peas; bread; cabbage; flatulent food; fried food; fruit; sauerkraut. [2]: Beer; cakes, hot; cheese, old; cold drinks, in hot weather; cold food; farinaceous; hot food; lettuce; milk; milk, hot; pancakes; potatoes; rice; rich food; sausages, spoiled; turnips; vegetables; vegetables, green; wine; [1]: Bread, black; buttermilk; chicken; chicken salads; chocolate; coffee; fat; frozen food; heavy food; oil; oysters; raw food; rye bread; salads; smoking [= excessive salivation]; sweets [= fulness stomach and heartburn*]; water.
Better: [3]: Cold drinks. [2]: Warm drinks. [1]: Cold food; hot food; vinegar; wine.
* Repertory addition [Mezger].
Bry.
 |
| Bryonia |
And the measure of civilization. Savages do not work.
[Calvin Coolidge]
Signs
Bryonia alba. White Bryony. N.O. Cucurbitaceae.
CLASSIFICATION Bryonia belongs to the gourd family or Cucurbitaceae, a family of some 700 species in 120 genera. Highly specialized in habit, floral structure and biochemistry, the Cucurbitaceae generally are classified in a single-family order. Their botanical relationships are completely obscure and they are unrelated to the bulk of families amongst which they were once placed, in or near the Campanulales. ... Bitter substances, known as cucurbitacins, are widespread in the family. Many of the edible species occur in both bitter [inedible] and non-bitter [edible] variants. 1 A group of tetracyclic triterpenes, the bitter principles of cucurbits have antineoplastic and anti-gibberellin activities. [Gibberellins are plant-growth regulators.]
DISTRIBUTION Found in abundance in the tropics - particularly in rain forest areas of South America and wood-, grass- and bushland areas of Africa -, the family consists chiefly of trailing or climbing herbs with very rapid growth and an abundance of [milky] sap in their stems and other tissues. The family is poorly represented in Australasia and all temperate regions. Most members of the family do not tolerate frost or cold soil. Due to their great sensitiveness to temperatures near freezing, their geographic distribution and area of cultivation is limited. The family includes such economically important food plants as pumpkin, cucumber, gherkin, watermelon, muskmelon, summer squash, winter squash, chayote, gourd, courgette, and cassabanana. The fruit in most species is a fleshy, many-seeded berry with a tough rind, often attaining considerable size. The fruits of some wild species are important sources of food and water in the desert areas of southern Africa.
CLIMBERS Cucurbitaceae are tendril climbers, the tendrils representing modified shoots, usually one per node. The tendril tip curls round any suitable nearby object, such as a plant stem; the rest of the tendril then coils in a spring-like manner, drawing the stem in close to its support so that other shoots can the more easily attach themselves to it. If the support contracted by a tendril is unlikely to provide the kind of roughness needed for a secure grip, the tendril will unwind and resume its blind search.
GENUS The genus Bryonia comprises herbs or long-tendriled vines, included in about 12 species, that are native to Eurasia. Bryonia is common among hedges and in borders of woods, especially in calcareous soils. The annual plants are extremely fast growers, in one season quickly covering entire areas of hedges and undershrubs with their rough stems and leaves and even climbing to a height of several feet above them. The fleshy roots yield a milky juice when cut. The name Bryonia comes from Gr. bryo, to sprout, in allusion to the fast annual growth from the tuber.
 |
| Bryonia album |
EFFECTS When applied to the skin, the fresh Bryonia plant produces vesication and pustular eruption. It has been applied externally as a rubefacient for myalgia. Many species of the gourd family have been reported to produce mild to severe skin irritation following contact with their milky sap. The fruits of other species, e.g. Citrullus colocynthis and Ecballium elaterium, have drastic purgative properties that have been utilized medicinally. "The fresh root of bryonia is extremely irritating, occasioning blisters when bruised and kept in contact with the skin, and causing serious gastrointestinal inflammation when taken internally. A profuse and uncontrollable diarrhoea, vomiting, vertigo, reduction of temperature, dilatation of the pupils, cold perspiration, extremely small pulse, colic, collapse, and death have resulted from its use. Its influence on the nervous system is marked. A similar result follows the administration of large doses of the dried root. An infusion of galls is said to antidote it. This root appears to have been well known to the ancients, and was used in various maladies. It has likewise been employed in more recent times in convulsions due to the presence of worms in the intestines, as a cathartic in dropsy, and in cases of chronic inflammations, attended with glandular enlargements, or serous effusions."2
SYMBOLISM In Roman symbolism the pumpkin is stupidity, empty-headedness and madness. Correspondingly, in Shakespeare's Merry Wives a member of the gourd family is presented as a metaphor for empty-headedness: 'We'll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross watery pumpion; we'll teach him to know turtles from jays.' This 'emptiness' has its parallel in the low nutritional value of the gourd family. In Bryonia, the fleshy fruit is reduced to a medium-sized berry. "Although their different varieties, pumpkins for example, are emblems of stupidity to Western eyes, some African initiates eat their seeds as symbols of intelligence. It is however true that the gourd remains after its seeds have been removed. ... Gourds grow in the isles of the Immortals, but they also help in the journey there, and to Heaven as well."3 In Jonah 4: 6-7, the gourd expresses apparently contradictory decisions of God. "And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered." If God's reactions cannot be foreseen, nothing can be foreseen, making mankind suffer from this insecurity and this lack of logic, "or rather from a logic of which it cannot decipher the secrets. The sudden growth and death of the gourd are symbols of this. Human logic cannot grasp the incoherence of things and the absurdity of events; but they are amenable to a different logic. What happened to the gourd suggests to mankind that it should not trust to its dialectic alone, since there is another superior to it."4
PARALLELS "The most eye-catching qualities of this family are the gigantic, watery swellings, the creeping-crawling-support seeking properties and their need for a warm surrounding. Where in the human body do we find an equivalent of these qualities? According to anthroposophical medicine, the healing properties of this family correlate to the area of metabolism, the alimentary tract, and the intestines. One can imagine why. The part of the human body in which the liquids are pre-eminent, in which water and nutrients are assimilated, is the metres-long intestine which twists its way to its destination. [To make the picture complete, support is given by the abdominal muscles.] The better known remedies of this family have the bulk of their symptoms in the abdominal area. The few symptoms we have of the lesser known remedies all relate to the abdomen."5
HOMOEOPATHY Homoeopathy employs species of the following genera: Bryonia, Citrullus, Cucumis, Cucurbita, Ecballium, Luffa, Momordica, and Trichosanthes. Of these, Bryonia, Citrullus, and Ecballium are closest related to each other since they belong to the same tribe.
PROVINGS •• [1] Hahnemann - 7 provers; method: unknown.
•• [2] Austrian proving - 19 provers [17 males, 2 females], 1844 [in this proving also results with Bryonia dioica are included!]; method: increasing doses of tincture of the root; increasing doses of 1x dil.; also with 'the dilutions beginning with the 8x and descending to the 1x.'
•• [3] Mezger and Pirtkien - 47 provers, 1957-58; method: 1x, 3x, 4x, or 6x, three times daily 5 drops during first week, three times daily 10 drops during second week, and three times daily 15 drops during third [and last] week.
[1] Heywood, Flowering Plants of the World. [2] King's American Dispensatory. [3-4] Chevalier and Gheerbrant, Dictionary of Symbols. [5] Ruarus, The Cucurbitacea: A brief essay; HL 5/99.
Affinity
CIRCULATION. Liver. SEROUS MEMBRANES [HEAD - meninges; CHEST - pleura, pericardium; JOINTS; ABDOMEN]. Motor apparatus [nerves; muscles]. Blood. Lymphatics. Cellular tissue. Synovia. * RIGHT SIDE. Left side.
Modalities
Worse: MOTION [RISING - from lying; STOOPING; EXERTION; COUGHING; DEEP BREATHING; jar; sneezing; swallowing; motion of eyes]. HOT [BECOMING; ROOM; weather; summer]. Drinking, while hot. EATING. Vegetables. Acids. VEXATION. Touch. Suppressions [eruptions]. Taking cold. Lying on painless side. Ascending. Morning. During sleep. Closing eyes. COLD [becoming; cold dry weather].
Better: PRESSURE [LYING ON PAINFUL PART; bandage, etc.]. COLD AIR. When QUIET. Cloudy, damp days. Drawing knees up. Heat to inflamed part. Dark room. Cold water. Cold food. Eructations.
Main symptoms
M People firmly rooted in the material world, objective and business-like, not much by emotions, sentimental feelings or imaginative power, but nonetheless with a strong desire for security and support, which they try to find in money and property. When lacking this sure ground, they become irritable, anxious and sad.
• "The typical Bryonia personality is not the artist or scientist or philosopher, the explorer of beauty or the unknown, who disregards the material basis of his existence to reach out into lofty heights. It is the businessman, the insurance man, the stockbroker, the man without much imagination but with much calculation; a dry fellow, sober, reliable, methodical, tenacious, weighing his steps, concerned in everything he does with safety, stability, security. Lacking a safe basis for his economic existence he becomes irritable, angry, anxious, depressed, always on the lookout for something which promises a hold to provide stability and security. ...Worried about his security, he holds on to his back, he holds on to his belly, he holds on to his pocket-book."1
• "Rich and competent though he is, he fears poverty, he may be slow on the uptake but how persistent; he can follow through with large projects, his obstinacy is an aid, his choleric disposition an added strength. The Bryonia types are not negative; they are a bursting people which their pains symbolise. They are better under pressure, in mind as in body. They are a mighty folk and can produce real end results in the world."2
• "His depression started after he stopped working. He cannot accept the fact that he is unable to work anymore. His work was his hobby and now he feels he is a misfit. 'I sit behind the window, and other people see me walking around and I have less income than them.' Regarding his income he says he had always tried to improve his turnover. He had changed his job several times in order to make more money."3
M FEAR OF POVERTY.
TALKS CONTINUOUSLY ABOUT HIS BUSINESS.
Constant worrying about money.
• "Dreams all night very vividly of anxious and careful attention to his business."
• "In his dreams he is occupied with household affairs." [Hahnemann]
M Irritability when disturbed; wants to be let alone.
• "Cross; imagined she could not finish her work." "Too busy; she wishes to undertake and to work at too many things." [Hahnemann]
• "Bryonia patients are withdrawn into themselves, purposely isolated from social contact. Always in the background is a deep feeling of insecurity, a sense of vulnerability and weakness. It is this that leads them to seek isolation. They do not want to be intruded upon, and they are quite content to live alone. ... It seems to me that the insecurity arises out of the lack of social contact in Bryonia patients. They do not allow themselves the sense of security that can be derived from family, friends, community, etc. Bryonia patients are responsible people; they usually take the greatest share of responsibility for their families, for instance, but then they wonder who will take care of them in case of financial disaster. They feel unsupported and insecure." [Vithoulkas]
M < Thunderstorm. • "A thunderstorm represents the idea of an increased tension, to the point that all the stored up energy is discharged. Both Colocynthis and Bryonia fear thunderstorms, and it is interesting that this symptom is also present in the Cucurbita melo case."4 c Augustus Caesar reportedly wore a wreath of Bryony during thunderstorms to protect himself from lightning. G WARM-BLOODED. General < warmth, summer; > cool open air, cold drinks.
G Ailments from chilling when overheated;
when warm weather sets in after cold days;
after cold drinks or ice in hot weather.
G Appropriate to persons "who overeat or eat excessively of meat, and have strong constitutions." [Clarke]
Digestive troubles from beans, peas, cabbage, bread, flatulent food, fruit.
< Fruit. [cold fruit; melons; pears; stewed fruit; strawberries] G THIRST for LARGE QUANTITIES of COLD WATER. G < MOTION. < MOTION of AFFECTED part. > Rest and when quiet.
• "'Aggravation by motion' has long been a phrase applied to Bryonia cases, and so we find in these cases a lethargy induced more by a desire to remain quiet than one of dulness, as is noticeable when Belladonna is required. The patient is languid, torpid, tired, and has little inclination to go about. A general deficiency of nervous balance is observable, and every effort tends to induce perspiration. With this may or may not be associated the Bryonia headache, pain from the frontal region to the occipital base; thinking is an effort, and the patient is irritable if disturbed."5
• "Prevention of movement, of the free flow of secretions and discharges underlies likewise the etiological factors which are known to provoke the mentioned pathological conditions: checking of perspiration, of the menstrual flow, of milk-secretion, of exanthemata. Anger and its suppression are known as etiological factors of syndromes calling for Bryonia. Suppressed resentment and hostility are now considered as of etiological importance in rheumatoid arthritis which often exhibits the typical Bryonia symptoms. Bryonia has produced in animals bile stasis with subsequent degeneration of liver cells. Also, in the emotional sphere, a process of inhibition of the free flow, of the moving of emotions is indicative of the action of Bryonia."6
G > PRESSURE; lying on PAINFUL side.
> Keeping still.
Has to hold head or chest when coughing.
G < HEAT, except headache and pain in stomach. G < MORNING ON RISING [= first movements] [vertigo, headache, etc.]. c Early morning aggravation of sleep, general state, and digestive troubles were confirmed in Mezger's proving. G > PERSPIRATION.
G > WET weather.
G EXCESSIVE DRYNESS of MUCOUS MEMBRANES.
[dry, parched, cracked lips; stool hard, large and dry as if burnt; sensation of stone in stomach]
G STITCHING PAINS, < motion, > rest.
G Slow onset of acute complaints.
[1] Gutman, Bryonia alba; BHJ April 1961. [2] Wright Hubbard, The Intellectual Remedies; Homoeopathy, May 1968.
[3] Verkerk, Redundant; What is my future? HL 5/99. [4] Van der Zee, Themes of the Cucurbitaceae; HL 5/99.
[5] King's American Dispensatory. [6] Gutman, ibid.
Rubrics
Mind
Ailments from hurry [2]; from violence [2]. Anxiety, compelled to do something [2/1]; driving from place to place [1]; about money matters [2]; from thinking about it [1]. Desire for change [2]. Confusion > eructations [1], when lying [1], > yawning [1/1]. Delusions of being away from home and having to get there [3]; that she cannot accomplish her work [1]. Desires more than she needs [1]. Dulness when spoken to [1]. Fear of starving [2]. Irritability, wishes to be alone [1]. Loquacity about business [2].
Vertigo
During constipation [1]. As if sinking down in bed [2].
Head
Pain, morning on waking, on first opening eyes [2], increasing gradually [1], motion of eyelids [2], before thunderstorms [1]. Swollen feeling, occiput [1].
Eye
Lachrymation from light of sun [1]. Sensation of protrusion [1]. Sensation as if eyes were smaller [1].
Vision
Colours, blue haze [2/1]. Dim, > twilight [1].
Nose
Imaginary odour of manure [1].
Face
Chewing motion of jaw during sleep [1]. Twitching around mouth [1].
Throat
Dryness, speaking very difficult [1]. Food is felt through oesophagus until it enters the stomach [1]. Pain, on turning the head [1].
Stomach
Appetite ravenous after nausea [1/1]. Fulness after sweets [1*]. Heartburn after sweets [1*], after wine [1]. Nausea after beer [1], after coffee [1], > drinking [3]. Vomiting of food, not of drinks [2].
Rectum
Constipation, unable to pass stool in presence of nurse [1], at seaside [1], from sedentary habits [2]. Diarrhoea from draft of air [1], > all symptoms [1], after cabbage [1], after chagrin [1], after stewed fruit [1], after ice cream [1], > lying on back [2], after sauerkraut [2], while at seaside [1], in spring [2]. Urging on tightening clothing [1/1].
Female
Menses suppressed, in emigrants [1], after being heated [2].
Cough
Bending head backward < [2]. Limbs Pain > perspiration [2], rheumatic, during first days of warm weather [1/1].
Sleep
Aversion to rise after waking [1]. Waking with numbness [1].
Dreams
Household [2]. Hunger [1]. Soldiers [1].
Skin
Eruptions, urticaria from strawberries [1/1]. Itching on excitement [1].
* Repertory additions [Mezger].
Food
Aversion: [2]: Coffee; fats and rich food; food; meat; milk. [1]: Beer; cabbage; cold water; eggs, hard boiled; smoking; tobacco; warm drinks; water.
Desire: [3]: Cold drinks; warm drinks. [2]: Beer; coffee; meat; milk, warm; oysters; pungent; sour; strange things; sweets; sweets and sour; wine. [1]: Alcohol; brandy; cabbage; cold food; indigestible things; liquid food; milk; soup.
Worse: [3]: Beans and peas; bread; cabbage; flatulent food; fried food; fruit; sauerkraut. [2]: Beer; cakes, hot; cheese, old; cold drinks, in hot weather; cold food; farinaceous; hot food; lettuce; milk; milk, hot; pancakes; potatoes; rice; rich food; sausages, spoiled; turnips; vegetables; vegetables, green; wine; [1]: Bread, black; buttermilk; chicken; chicken salads; chocolate; coffee; fat; frozen food; heavy food; oil; oysters; raw food; rye bread; salads; smoking [= excessive salivation]; sweets [= fulness stomach and heartburn*]; water.
Better: [3]: Cold drinks. [2]: Warm drinks. [1]: Cold food; hot food; vinegar; wine.
* Repertory addition [Mezger].
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