Lachesis mutus: A number of factors have conspired to give the bushmaster an evil reputation.
- VERMEULEN Frans
Lach.
Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
[Matthew 10:16]
Signs
Lachesis muta muta. Bushmaster. Surucucu.
CLASSIFICATION The Bushmaster belongs to the subfamily Crotalinae [Pitvipers] of the family Viperidae. Lachesis muta inhabits four distinct areas in tropical rain forest, with each population classified as a separate subspecies: Lachesis muta muta, L. muta rhombeata, L. muta stenophrys, and L. muta melanocephala. Although Linnaeus named this snake, Crotalus mutus, the mute rattlesnake, Lachesis may display an audible tail vibration when disturbed. It is named after one of the three Fates, she who casts the lot to decide when a man's days are done.
HABITAT "This snake occurs in tropical rainforests and lower montane wet forests that receive more than 2,000mm, and usually more than 4,000mm, of rainfall per annum. In a few regions [Nicaragua and Ilanos of Colombia] it apparently enters tropical dry forests [or seasonally dry forests] in riparian situations. Lachesis is an inhabitant of primary forest, often living near large buttressed trees [Ceiba, Swietenia, etc.] or adjacent to fallen trees. Upon occasion it may be encountered in secondary forest situations but in areas recently cleared or adjacent to virgin forest."1
FEATURES Lachesis muta is one of the largest venomous snakes. It is either tan or pink, with large diamond-shaped blotches on the back. The head has large venom glands and unusually long fangs. The adult snake can grow up to 12 feet long. It feeds only on rodents throughout life, and injects large amounts of a rather weak venom. An unusually patient predator, the Bushmaster may just as well be called the Ambushmaster for it may lay in wait near trails and rodent runways in order to attack by surprise. This snake travels 5-20 m or more between hunting sites and remains at each location for days or even weeks. Lachesis is the only pit viper in the Americas that lays eggs. It is seldom spotted due to its nocturnal habits and its quiet and shy nature. However, specimens found active after dark may be quick to strike and may deliver multiple bites in a single attack. Heat-seeking pits on the head respond to changes as small as 0.002 degrees Celsius and are able to locate prey whose prey whose temperatures differ from surroundings by as little as 0.1 degrees Celsius. Bushmasters and some other stout snakes travel rod-straight, with the onset and cessation of movement almost imperceptible.
REPUTATION "A number of factors have conspired to give the bushmaster an evil reputation. First, it is extremely large and that in itself seems to inspire dread when a venomous snake is involved. A second factor is that the bushmaster is notoriously difficult to maintain in captivity. It usually refuses food and only very few specimens have been maintained for any length of time and then, usually, in study collections away from the public. This 'seldom seen' factor has made of the bushmaster a large venomous snake from a distant jungle seldom seen, little known, and deadly dangerous. ... In fact there seems to be considerable question as to the bushmaster's deadly nature. The snake is without doubt seriously venomous - that certainly. It has long fangs and a good supply of venom, but there are few bites on record. One reason for the sparse bite statistics is probably the fact that the bushmaster is strictly nocturnal and sticks to the forests. In addition to being remote and nocturnal, the bushmaster is apparently shy and slow to take offence. ... Schmidt told the story, a humorous story by the greatest of good luck, about some people who were discovered dragging a large bushmaster along a dusty road on a leash they had fashioned from a shoelace. Periodically they would stop and push the reluctant snake along, for it was not very good about being walked like a dog. They thought they had a small boa constrictor. It would have been interesting to see their reactions when they realized what it was they had in their unguarded grips. This story, which is reinforced by other similar tales, seems to reveal the truly placid disposition of the bushmaster. Rosenfeld presents data on two series of snakebites in South America. In one series, from 1902 to 1945 there were 6,601 bite cases. Only 16 of these were by the bushmaster [less than a 0.25 percent] and of the 16 only one person died - 6.2 percent. In a second series from a hospital in Brazil, for the 12 years 1954-65, there were 1,718 cases of snakebite, with not one of the them by the bushmaster. Minton and Minton adopt a word from the German zoologists - Kulturfliegern, literally translated meaning 'culture fleers' - to describe this snake. Bushmasters are undoubtedly Kulturfliegern and that is why they are so seldom involved in accidents with human beings."2
ICON FOR WILDERNESS Almost forty years after Linnaeus had named, in 1766, the Bushmaster Crotalus mutus, the young French herpetologist Francois-Marie Daudin placed the world's largest viper in a new genus, Lachesis, named for the Fate Lachesis of Greek mythology, the drawer of lots, chosing the length of the strand of one's life thread. "Perhaps Daudin's choice reflected a distaste widespread among early naturalists [Linnaeus called reptiles 'foul, loathsome beings'] as well as the legendary dangers associated with the snake. Subsequent treatment of the Bushmastergenerally has continued in the vein set by early writers. Although rarely seen by naturalists, this great snake has inspired more than fifty, often colourful, vernacular names in Latin America. Some Brazilians say the 'Surucucu' extinguishes fire, others that it suckles milk from cows and sleeping women. Rural people on the Atlantic versant of Costa Rica call the Bushmaster 'Matabuey' [ox killer]. The image of Bushmasters in travellers' accounts is often fanciful, as if monstrous serpents were slaying whole mule trains of explorers. Almost two centuries after the initial description of Lachesis muta, even herpetologists still wrote florid prose about this famous inhabitant of neotropical lowland rain forest. In elementary school I read 'Episode of the Bushmaster', in which Raymond L. Ditmars received the giant viper from Trinidad and had trouble transferring the snake to a cage in his family New York City house. There is the unmistakable impression of danger, even malevolence on the snake' part, as the young man manoeuvred the 'deliberately aggressive' animal with a broom. Until recently few herpetologists have encountered Bushmasters, and we knew little more than Ditmars had reported: they are huge, rare, and supposedly ferocious, and they lay eggs, a habit unique among New World vipers. In 1982 several colleagues and I began an extended research project at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. La Selva has one of the richest vertebrate predator faunas on earth and we hoped to entangle dietary interactions among the more than one hundred species of snakes, raptors, and mammalian carnivores at the sites. Not surprisingly, giant vipers were on my mind from the start, so I asked a lifelong resident of the region to watch for them on his daily patrols of the reserve. At lunch a few days later, Edwin Paniagua told the station co-directors that he had indeed found a Matabuey to show me. ... [They then hike for almost up and down mud-slick trails through the hot and humid forest.] ... Edwin stopped fifty metres or so up a broad ravine and peered over an enormous fallen tree. Then, motioning caution with one hand, he pointed for Manuel Santana and me to lean over the chest-high log. Coiled in a mound on the forest floor, its calligraphic black and tan colours blending with surrounding debris, was the most magnificent snake I'd ever seen in nature. Thirty years after I'd read Ditmars's story, here was a live, wild Bushmaster - perhaps two and a half metres long, and thicker than my arm. As we scrambled over to it, the Bushmaster's only responses were slight elevation and retraction of its head, then a slow, vertical sweep of the long black tongue, aimed directly at us. The snake's behaviour was not exaggerated - no lunging strikes, no frenzied escape efforts - but there was a powerful sensation of measured readiness, like Clint Eastwood's squint in High Plains Drifter: "Don't come closer.' With no experience handling really large vipers, I simply photographed that first Lachesis muta and watched it slowly crawl away. In the following decade our research group studied more than two dozen others, documenting a sedentary lifestyle, remarkably narrow diet of rodents, and dependence on undisturbed lowland tropical rain forest. Bushmasters embody our cultural and scientific traditions about what it means to be a snake: extraordinarily cryptic, they obtain infrequent large meals with minimal risk, depend heavily on chemical clues rather than vision and sound, and convey a certain inscrutability. Bushmasters invariably have symbolized grave danger, even though our fears are largely irrational. Their bite is extremely serious, yet accidents are so rare that we lack a clear picture of proper treatment. Perhaps no other serpent is such an icon for wilderness and the complex meaning of that word, including the profound uncertainties one lives with, and learns, in remote places."3
VENOM Snake venom phospholipases, catalyzing the hydrolysis of phospholipids to give fatty acids and lisophospholipids, induce multiple pharmacological effects such as presynaptic neurotoxic, myotoxic, cardiotoxic, anticoagulant, haemolytic, oedema-inducing activities as well as effects on platelet aggregation. The venom of Lachesis is very potent in terms of coagulant activity. Oedema forming activity is also very potent, with the peak activity occurring an hour after the bite.
EFFECTS The bite of Lachesis muta muta can be fatal. Pain and oedema usually begins within the first few minutes after the bite and significant local tissue destruction can ensue, along with a substantial coagulopathy. Additional symptoms may include abrupt hypotension, decreased heart rate, intense colic, gingival haemorrhage, blurry vision, vomiting, and bloody diarrhoea. Dizziness and blistering wounds can also be present.
SYMBOLISM "The serpent is a highly complex and universal symbol. The serpent and dragon are often interchangeable and in the Far East no distinction is made between them. The symbolism of the serpent is polyvalent: it can be male, female, or the self-created. As a killer it is death and destruction; as renewing its skin periodically it is life and resurrection; as coiled it is equated with the cycles of manifestation. It is solar and lunar, life and death, light and darkness, good and evil, wisdom and blind passion, healing and poison, preserver and destroyer, and both spiritual and physical rebirth. It is phallic, the procreative male force, 'the husband of all women', and the presence of a serpent is almost universally associated with pregnancy. It accompanies all female deities and the Great Mother, and is often depicted twining round them or held in their hands. Here it also takes on the feminine characteristics of the secret, enigmatic and intuitional; it is the unpredictable in that it appears and disappears suddenly."4
CREATION The snake is above all a magical-religious symbol of primeval life force, sometimes an image of the creator divinity itself. Coiled round the Cosmic Tree or any axial symbol, it is the awakening of dynamic force; the anima mundi. The ouroboros motif of a snake swallowing its own tail, as well as emerging from itself, symbolizes not only eternity but a divine self-sufficiency. The cosmic serpent as a prime mover in the act of creation is prominent in many cultures. Serpents, or dragons, are the guardians of the threshold, temples, treasures, sources of water, esoteric knowledge, medical cures, magic, and all lunar deities. Coming from the earth, the serpent was considered the knower of all its secrets.
DEATH AND RENEWAL In numerous cultures the serpent is cast in the role of swallower and regurgitator of the sun, Lord of the Earth's Womb, Master Initiator and Regenerator, and it is the sun's great enemy with which it must do battle every night. Living underground, it is in touch with the underworld and has access to the powers, omniscience and magic possessed by the dead. The Huichol Cosmic Serpent has two heads, consisting of two pairs of monstrous jaws gaping at east and west: one swallows the sun at dusk, the other vomits it up at dawn. In South America, eclipses were explained as the swallowing of the sun or moon by a giant serpent. Traditional lore of Sumatra has it that a cosmic snake which inhabits the nether region will finally rise up to destroy the world.
FERTILITY As lord both of womankind and of fertility, the serpent was often regarded as being responsible for menstruation, which he caused through his bites. In the Guarani tribe of Southern Brazil the onset of puberty in a girl is expressed in the words, 'The snake has bitten her'. "A snake-entwined tree was a specific emblem if the Near-Eastern fertility goddess Ishtar. As shown by the many other earth goddesses who are depicted holding phallic snakes, serpents played important roles in vegetation fertility cults of the Mediterranean and Near East. Initiation rites of the Asia Minor fertility god Sabazius mimed the passage of a snake through the body of the acolyte. The snakes wound around the limbs of satyrs in paintings of Bacchanalian revels refer to classical fertility rites based on such earlier models and esp. associated with the sinuous vine. Snakes also featured in Semitic fertility cults which used sexual rites to approach the godhead. Eve's offer to Adam of the forbidden fruit [a symbol of the sacrilegious attempt to acquire divine powers] has been read as a Hebrew warning against the seductions of such rival cults. Hence - according to this exegesis - the Judeo-Christian symbolism of the serpent as the enemy of humankind and its later identification with Satan himself: 'that old serpent called the Devil' [Revelation 12:9]. In Western art, the snake thus became a dominant symbol of evil, sin, temptation or deceit. It appears at the foot of the cross as an emblem of the Fall, redeemed by Christ, and is shown being trampled by the Virgin Mary."5
EVIL The Mosaic story leaves no possibility of mistake as to the snake's part in the drama of the divine curse that fell as punishment upon the human race and the serpent kingdom. The snake is definitely the seducer, the tempter, the deceiver, and the very incarnation of the Spirit of Evil. Eve was beguiled by a serpent 'more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made' [Genesis 3:1]. Early Christian artists frequently portrayed this biblical scene of the fall, and to characterize it they often transposed the snake's head into a human face, sometimes the face of a young man smiling at Eve, but even more frequently the snake has the face of a woman. The bestiaries of the Middle Ages ordinarily consign the snake to the maleficent role of tempter under the name of viper or asp. In the common language, 'viper's tongue' was the expression which described that of slanderers, hypocrites, traitors, and liars. Because the tip of certain snakes' tongues ends in a fork, the artists exaggerated the natural form and made the point into a dart, an arrow, or a javelin. Like these weapons, an evil word also strikes and wounds, and sometimes kills. 6 In Tibetan Buddhism the green snake of hatred is one of the three base instincts.
DISINTEGRATION "Man, who imbued even the science of physics with some kind of feeling, coined the expression that Nature has a 'horror vacui.' The emptiness, the loss of form is for man a 'horror' which he projects into nature, even on its physical plane. Horror is also the primordial feeling of mankind towards the snake, the horror of formlessness, the revulsion felt against this in comparison with other living beings formless mass, behind which lurks the active side of formlessness, destruction of form. A snake, poisonous or not, swallows its prey in its entirety and its sharp gastric juices dissolve everything, hair, teeth and bones - nothing which gave form remains. If its poison is injected, the immediate tissues are through its proteolytic and cytolytic enzymes transformed into a formless slimy mass, and even in death the body of a bitten, poisoned victim decays and dissolves faster than normally. ... Evolutionally the snake itself is in some sense the outcome of a regressive, 'disintegrating' process within the line of the vertebrates with their enormous variety of forms. In its anatomical inner structure all paired organs are reduced in size on the left side, the left lung sometimes completely absent. Its senses are degenerated, the eye can obviously see only the movement of an object, the ear has lost its function of hearing and has become actually an organ of touch, receiving the slightest sensation of vibration. Only the most primitive sense, the sense of touch, is highly developed, making the snake aware of the slightest vibration of the ground. Also the sense of smell has to a certain extent become an organ of touch, the ever moving tongue conveying tiny particles in the air to a specialized organ in the anterior part of the palate which is connected with the olfactory nerve. The only part of its anatomy not affected by this regressive tendency is the mouth, gullet and the digestive canal, the organs which dissolve form. Through movable, anatomically separated parts of the jaws, connected through elastic ligaments, the mouth can be opened to nearly a 180 degrees and the throat, of boas for instance, is passable for whole antelopes of 60-150 lb."7
PROVINGS •• [1] Hering - self-experimentation, 1828; method: "effects of 1st and 2nd trits. and symptoms felt during trituration."
•• [2] Provings under direction of Hering - 18 provers [16 males, 2 females; 18 names are mentioned, but more people were involved, eg a man with several large warts on hands, a pale girl at puberty, a man who had been blind more than ten years, etc.], 1829-36; method: 30th dil., manner not stated but most likely in repeated doses.
•• [3] Robinson - 3 provers [2 females, 1 male]; method: 6th, 20th, or 30th dils., 4 times a day.
•• [4] Berridge - 5 provers [among which 2 patients]; method: 6th, 200th, 60M, CM, manner not stated.
[1] Michael Thompson, Michael's Snakes [manuscript]. [2] Caras, Venomous Animals of the World. [3] Greene, Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature. [4] Cooper, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. [5] Tresidder, Dictionary of Symbols. [6] Charbonneau-Lassay, The Bestiary of Christ. [7] Gutman, Lachesis, the Snake; BHJ, Jan. 1966.
Affinity
NERVES [CUTANEOUS; VASOMOTOR; sympathetic; PNEUMO-GASTRIC]. BLOOD. HEART. CIRCULATION. FEMALE ORGANS. Vertex. LEFT SIDE [THROAT; OVARY]. * LEFT SIDE. LEFT then RIGHT.
Modalities
Worse: SLEEP; AFTER. MORNING. HEAT [SPRING; SUMMER; SUN; ROOM; DRINKS]. SWALLOWING; EMPTY; liquids. SENSITIVE TO [noise; SLIGHT TOUCH or PRESSURE of CLOTHES, < NECK, waist]. RETARDED DISCHARGES. Start and close of menses. CLIMAXIS. ALCOHOL. EXTREMES of temperature. Better: OPEN AIR. FREE SECRETIONS. Hard pressure. Bathing part. COLD DRINKS. Main symptoms M SHARP-TONGUED, WITTY. Bright, censorious, jesting, satirical [very entertaining but tiring]. • "The more cause for fretfulness [about tedious and dry things], the greater inclination for humour, jest, satire, and humorous fancies." [Hering] Fascinating and charismatic, or ruthless, remorseless, tactless directness. OVERACTIVE MIND. • "Increased power of originality in all mental work, increased activity of fancy, scenes and occurrence throng to him in an unusual amount; no sooner does one idea occur to him than a number of others follow in quick succession while he is writing it down, so that he is unable to finish the record." [Hering] Great command of language. Learns foreign languages easily. OR: LOQUACITY [wants to talk all the time; jumps from one idea to another; one word often leads into another story], bombastic, exaggerating, loud. • "Sleepiness with inability to sleep, without sitting up he talks a great deal, wishes to tell stories, constantly goes from one thing to another, during this, however, he recollects himself and soon knows when he has mixed and distorted anything, he then corrects himself, but repeats same mistakes." [Hering] M Strong-minded, opinionated. • "Violent, quarrelsome, morose, for several days he involuntarily speaks louder and more distinctly than usual, thinks clearly and expresses himself well, but has no memory, does not hear or understand what others say to him." [Hughes] Or: • "Sudden doubts arise about truths of which he had hitherto been convinced." [Hughes] Disputative. • "Unusually contentious and obstinate, so that he quarrels with everything about him; so quarrelsome that he disputes with a mother about the age of her daughter, and affirms the younger to be the elder." [Hughes] Egocentric. • "The Lachesis mentality is egocentric in a marked degree, unable to laugh with those who laugh or weep with those who weep. The Lachesis subject may shed tears, but they will be of self-pity and not of sympathy with others." [Gibson] • "Advertising has a lot to do with Lachesis, concerned as it is with jealousy and one-upmanship: it amuses, entertains and catches attention, pushing its own product up while cleverly pushing other products down, and quickly injects you with temptations for the product being advertised. A lot of the entertainment industry also has to do with the Lachesis theme and I have observed that Lachesis people often get into the advertising or entertainment industries." [Sankaran] HAUGHTY. FANATICISM [esp. about religious issues]. Delusion being under supernatural control. M SUSPICION. • "Becomes easily peevish and mistrustful, believes himself intentionally injured by all about him, and attaches the most hateful significance to the most innocent occurrences." [Hering] • "A peculiar fear is 'of something lurking behind' [the snake lurking in the grass], which results in an unwillingness to turn the back towards anyone or to sit in the forward seats on a bus." [Gibson] JEALOUSY. Very territorial, possessive and manipulative. [Or feeling of being manipulated and restricted.] M INTENSE, passionate. • "A kind of ecstasy, as after sublime impressions or excessive joy, throughout day, he constantly wishes to talk and do much, and even more seems to be at his command." [Hering] Goes to EXTREMES. M VIVID imagination. • "Great inclination to be communicative, extraordinarily vivid imagination, therewith extremely impatient at tedious and dry things." [Hering] Prophetic. Quick comprehension. M Moralistic, puritan or militant on sexual or religious issues. M Strong SEX DRIVE, or high sexual standards [puritan, fanatic disapproval]. • "Very much increased sexual desire, without amorousness, - when controlled, it caused great inclination for mental labour." [Hering] G High [mental] energy in evening / at night. • "He sits up late at night at mental work, with great activity; he is impelled to productive work in evening, although he had been much fatigued during the day; he sits up all night, without slightest sleepiness or exhaustion, writes with greatest freedom and increased vigour about everything that he knows, new things constantly throng on his mind, - also next day, after very little sleep, he is just as excited, it only gradually diminishes without subsequent reaction of mind [recurring in repeated proving]." [Hering] [Lachesis muta is nocturnal.] G Low energy in morning [after sleep]. • "Weakness after breakfast; feeling as though body were overwhelmed by a disintegrating tendency, with sinking of all the forces." [Hughes] G WARM-BLOODED. Congestive heat; warm hands and feet. • "Sensation as if skin had been burnt by great heat of the sun, which was not the case." [Hughes] G LEFT-SIDED ailments; or left extending to right. G Great sensitivity. Esp. to TOUCH. Can't bear anything tight or constricting; can't wear scarves. Choking from clothing around neck, from slight pressure or touch. • "During the heat as of orgasm of blood, he is obliged to loosen the clothes about the neck, there is a sensation as though they hindered the circulation of the blood, with kind of suffocative feeling." [Hughes] G < During and after SLEEP. < Morning on waking. < LONG sleep. • "Since the fundamental phenomenon underlying all the expressions and the entire symptomatology of the effect of snake poison is the paralysis of motion, of the 'motor force' in man, it seems obvious that the state which represents a 'physiological paralysis', sleep, will aggravate the similarly directed Lachesis symptoms." [Gutman] G < WARM WET WEATHER, sultry weather [Spring and Autumn]. G > DISCHARGES, esp. menses [as soon as flow starts].
• "Relief from 'flow' is characteristic of Lachesis. The inward anxiety and pent-up emotion finds expression in the spate-like flow of speech. Whereas rest, inaction, warmth and sleep all diminish circulatory flow and aggravate the sufferings of the Lachesis patient in consequence, activity, cool fresh air and taking food all improve the flow of blood and afford a measure of relief. Active flow of discharges will have the same effect." [Gibson]
< BEFORE menses. G PAINS hammering, throbbing or bursting [due to circulatory disorder]. G < Menopause [cessation of menses]. G Circulatory disturbances. Varicose veins. High blood pressure. PURPLE, bluish DISCOLOURATIONS. P Frontal headache extending to nose, or with feeling that nasal catarrh will develop. Rubrics Mind Absentminded before epileptic attack [1/1]. Abusive, husband insulting wife before children or vice versa [3]. Desire for amusement [2]. Anger from disappointed love [1]. Love for animals, cats [1]. Answering, dictatorial [1]. Chaotic, cannot perform anything in orderly manner [1]. Colours, desire for dark blue [1]; aversion to green [1], aversion to orange [1]. Communicative [2]. Aversion to company, desire for solitude to indulge in her fancy [2/1]; aversion to company during pregnancy [1]. Complaining of trifles [2/1]. Confusion, in morning on waking [3], before epileptic attack [1], as to time and space [1]. Delusions, that body were disintegrating [2], of being charmed and cannot break the spell [2/1], there are conspiracies against him [1], of floating in air like a spirit [1], of being hated by others [1], of hearing music, sweetest and sublimest melody [2], she were someone else and in the hands of a strong power [1/1], of being carried into space while lying [2], is under superhuman control [2], hearing voices commanding him to commit crime [1/1], of hearing voices that he must follow [1]. Egotism, speaking always about themselves in company [1]. Fear of getting old [1]. Abundant ideas, clearness of mind, in evening [3]. Morbid impulse to run before menses [1/1]. Industrious, in evening [2/1]. Lascivious, followed by epilepsy [2/1]. Loquacity, during menses [2], in selected expressions [1/1], makes speeches [2]. Desire for mental exertion when sexual desire is controlled [1*]. Prophesying [3]. Quick to act [2]. Loss of self-control [2]. Persistent thoughts of evil [2]. Wicked disposition [3]. Vertigo On closing eyes, with nausea [2]. After relaxation [1]. Head Heat, vertex, during menopause [3]. Pain, accompanied by obstruction of nose [1], from smell of coffee [1/1]. Vision Colours before the eyes, black, flickering [3/1], blue [2]. Dim, after headache [2]. Zigzags, flickering [2]. Hearing Acute, to noises, affect the teeth [2]. Teeth Sensation as if teeth were wedge-shaped [1/1]. Throat Food lodges in throat when eating fast [1/1]. Pain, < sweets [1]. Swallowing difficult, acrid foods [3/1], liquids [3], saliva [3], sweets [3/1]. Stomach Nausea, from pressure on throat [2/1]. Abdomen Distension before epileptic attack [2; Cupr.]. Female Menses, copious, but every alternate period absent [2/1]; painful, the smaller the flow the greater the pain [2/1]. Respiration Difficult, on covering nose or mouth [2]. Chest Bubbling sensation in region of heart [1]. Palpitation, when leaning back [2], with choking in throat [1]. Limbs Jerking, lower limbs, > moving feet [1*]. Sensation as if tendons in left arm were too short on stretching it out straight [1*].
Sleep
Sleeplessness, before midnight, with talkativeness [2/1]; from burning of soles of feet [2/1]; in illuminated room [1].
Dreams
Accusations [1]. Clairvoyant, during drunkenness [1/1]. His own funeral [1/1]. Intrigues [1]. Full of invention [1]. Vengeance [1].
Generals
Stiffness, always after sleep [1*], so stiff that he could scarcely stir or move [1*], > being rubbed and stroked [1*]. Weaknes, from walking in heat of sun [2].
* Repertory additions [Hering].
Food
Aversion: [2]: Bread; tobacco; warm food. [1]: Cooked food; mother's milk; smoking; wine.
Desire: [3]: Alcohol; oysters. [2]: Beer; pickles; sour; whisky; wine. [1]: Brandy; coffee; farinaceous; flour; fruit; fruit, sour; lemonade; milk; pasta.
Worse: [3]: Cold food; warm food. [2]: Meat, spoiled; pungent, acrid. [1]: Coffee, smell of; fish; fruit; meat fried in butter [*; = sour and bitter eructations]; milk; salad; sour; sweets; tea; vegetables; vinegar.
Better: [1]: Coffee; fruit; sour; sour fruit; wine.
* Repertory addition [Hering].
 |
| Lachesis mutus |
Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
[Matthew 10:16]
Signs
Lachesis muta muta. Bushmaster. Surucucu.
CLASSIFICATION The Bushmaster belongs to the subfamily Crotalinae [Pitvipers] of the family Viperidae. Lachesis muta inhabits four distinct areas in tropical rain forest, with each population classified as a separate subspecies: Lachesis muta muta, L. muta rhombeata, L. muta stenophrys, and L. muta melanocephala. Although Linnaeus named this snake, Crotalus mutus, the mute rattlesnake, Lachesis may display an audible tail vibration when disturbed. It is named after one of the three Fates, she who casts the lot to decide when a man's days are done.
HABITAT "This snake occurs in tropical rainforests and lower montane wet forests that receive more than 2,000mm, and usually more than 4,000mm, of rainfall per annum. In a few regions [Nicaragua and Ilanos of Colombia] it apparently enters tropical dry forests [or seasonally dry forests] in riparian situations. Lachesis is an inhabitant of primary forest, often living near large buttressed trees [Ceiba, Swietenia, etc.] or adjacent to fallen trees. Upon occasion it may be encountered in secondary forest situations but in areas recently cleared or adjacent to virgin forest."1
REPUTATION "A number of factors have conspired to give the bushmaster an evil reputation. First, it is extremely large and that in itself seems to inspire dread when a venomous snake is involved. A second factor is that the bushmaster is notoriously difficult to maintain in captivity. It usually refuses food and only very few specimens have been maintained for any length of time and then, usually, in study collections away from the public. This 'seldom seen' factor has made of the bushmaster a large venomous snake from a distant jungle seldom seen, little known, and deadly dangerous. ... In fact there seems to be considerable question as to the bushmaster's deadly nature. The snake is without doubt seriously venomous - that certainly. It has long fangs and a good supply of venom, but there are few bites on record. One reason for the sparse bite statistics is probably the fact that the bushmaster is strictly nocturnal and sticks to the forests. In addition to being remote and nocturnal, the bushmaster is apparently shy and slow to take offence. ... Schmidt told the story, a humorous story by the greatest of good luck, about some people who were discovered dragging a large bushmaster along a dusty road on a leash they had fashioned from a shoelace. Periodically they would stop and push the reluctant snake along, for it was not very good about being walked like a dog. They thought they had a small boa constrictor. It would have been interesting to see their reactions when they realized what it was they had in their unguarded grips. This story, which is reinforced by other similar tales, seems to reveal the truly placid disposition of the bushmaster. Rosenfeld presents data on two series of snakebites in South America. In one series, from 1902 to 1945 there were 6,601 bite cases. Only 16 of these were by the bushmaster [less than a 0.25 percent] and of the 16 only one person died - 6.2 percent. In a second series from a hospital in Brazil, for the 12 years 1954-65, there were 1,718 cases of snakebite, with not one of the them by the bushmaster. Minton and Minton adopt a word from the German zoologists - Kulturfliegern, literally translated meaning 'culture fleers' - to describe this snake. Bushmasters are undoubtedly Kulturfliegern and that is why they are so seldom involved in accidents with human beings."2
ICON FOR WILDERNESS Almost forty years after Linnaeus had named, in 1766, the Bushmaster Crotalus mutus, the young French herpetologist Francois-Marie Daudin placed the world's largest viper in a new genus, Lachesis, named for the Fate Lachesis of Greek mythology, the drawer of lots, chosing the length of the strand of one's life thread. "Perhaps Daudin's choice reflected a distaste widespread among early naturalists [Linnaeus called reptiles 'foul, loathsome beings'] as well as the legendary dangers associated with the snake. Subsequent treatment of the Bushmastergenerally has continued in the vein set by early writers. Although rarely seen by naturalists, this great snake has inspired more than fifty, often colourful, vernacular names in Latin America. Some Brazilians say the 'Surucucu' extinguishes fire, others that it suckles milk from cows and sleeping women. Rural people on the Atlantic versant of Costa Rica call the Bushmaster 'Matabuey' [ox killer]. The image of Bushmasters in travellers' accounts is often fanciful, as if monstrous serpents were slaying whole mule trains of explorers. Almost two centuries after the initial description of Lachesis muta, even herpetologists still wrote florid prose about this famous inhabitant of neotropical lowland rain forest. In elementary school I read 'Episode of the Bushmaster', in which Raymond L. Ditmars received the giant viper from Trinidad and had trouble transferring the snake to a cage in his family New York City house. There is the unmistakable impression of danger, even malevolence on the snake' part, as the young man manoeuvred the 'deliberately aggressive' animal with a broom. Until recently few herpetologists have encountered Bushmasters, and we knew little more than Ditmars had reported: they are huge, rare, and supposedly ferocious, and they lay eggs, a habit unique among New World vipers. In 1982 several colleagues and I began an extended research project at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. La Selva has one of the richest vertebrate predator faunas on earth and we hoped to entangle dietary interactions among the more than one hundred species of snakes, raptors, and mammalian carnivores at the sites. Not surprisingly, giant vipers were on my mind from the start, so I asked a lifelong resident of the region to watch for them on his daily patrols of the reserve. At lunch a few days later, Edwin Paniagua told the station co-directors that he had indeed found a Matabuey to show me. ... [They then hike for almost up and down mud-slick trails through the hot and humid forest.] ... Edwin stopped fifty metres or so up a broad ravine and peered over an enormous fallen tree. Then, motioning caution with one hand, he pointed for Manuel Santana and me to lean over the chest-high log. Coiled in a mound on the forest floor, its calligraphic black and tan colours blending with surrounding debris, was the most magnificent snake I'd ever seen in nature. Thirty years after I'd read Ditmars's story, here was a live, wild Bushmaster - perhaps two and a half metres long, and thicker than my arm. As we scrambled over to it, the Bushmaster's only responses were slight elevation and retraction of its head, then a slow, vertical sweep of the long black tongue, aimed directly at us. The snake's behaviour was not exaggerated - no lunging strikes, no frenzied escape efforts - but there was a powerful sensation of measured readiness, like Clint Eastwood's squint in High Plains Drifter: "Don't come closer.' With no experience handling really large vipers, I simply photographed that first Lachesis muta and watched it slowly crawl away. In the following decade our research group studied more than two dozen others, documenting a sedentary lifestyle, remarkably narrow diet of rodents, and dependence on undisturbed lowland tropical rain forest. Bushmasters embody our cultural and scientific traditions about what it means to be a snake: extraordinarily cryptic, they obtain infrequent large meals with minimal risk, depend heavily on chemical clues rather than vision and sound, and convey a certain inscrutability. Bushmasters invariably have symbolized grave danger, even though our fears are largely irrational. Their bite is extremely serious, yet accidents are so rare that we lack a clear picture of proper treatment. Perhaps no other serpent is such an icon for wilderness and the complex meaning of that word, including the profound uncertainties one lives with, and learns, in remote places."3
VENOM Snake venom phospholipases, catalyzing the hydrolysis of phospholipids to give fatty acids and lisophospholipids, induce multiple pharmacological effects such as presynaptic neurotoxic, myotoxic, cardiotoxic, anticoagulant, haemolytic, oedema-inducing activities as well as effects on platelet aggregation. The venom of Lachesis is very potent in terms of coagulant activity. Oedema forming activity is also very potent, with the peak activity occurring an hour after the bite.
EFFECTS The bite of Lachesis muta muta can be fatal. Pain and oedema usually begins within the first few minutes after the bite and significant local tissue destruction can ensue, along with a substantial coagulopathy. Additional symptoms may include abrupt hypotension, decreased heart rate, intense colic, gingival haemorrhage, blurry vision, vomiting, and bloody diarrhoea. Dizziness and blistering wounds can also be present.
SYMBOLISM "The serpent is a highly complex and universal symbol. The serpent and dragon are often interchangeable and in the Far East no distinction is made between them. The symbolism of the serpent is polyvalent: it can be male, female, or the self-created. As a killer it is death and destruction; as renewing its skin periodically it is life and resurrection; as coiled it is equated with the cycles of manifestation. It is solar and lunar, life and death, light and darkness, good and evil, wisdom and blind passion, healing and poison, preserver and destroyer, and both spiritual and physical rebirth. It is phallic, the procreative male force, 'the husband of all women', and the presence of a serpent is almost universally associated with pregnancy. It accompanies all female deities and the Great Mother, and is often depicted twining round them or held in their hands. Here it also takes on the feminine characteristics of the secret, enigmatic and intuitional; it is the unpredictable in that it appears and disappears suddenly."4
CREATION The snake is above all a magical-religious symbol of primeval life force, sometimes an image of the creator divinity itself. Coiled round the Cosmic Tree or any axial symbol, it is the awakening of dynamic force; the anima mundi. The ouroboros motif of a snake swallowing its own tail, as well as emerging from itself, symbolizes not only eternity but a divine self-sufficiency. The cosmic serpent as a prime mover in the act of creation is prominent in many cultures. Serpents, or dragons, are the guardians of the threshold, temples, treasures, sources of water, esoteric knowledge, medical cures, magic, and all lunar deities. Coming from the earth, the serpent was considered the knower of all its secrets.
DEATH AND RENEWAL In numerous cultures the serpent is cast in the role of swallower and regurgitator of the sun, Lord of the Earth's Womb, Master Initiator and Regenerator, and it is the sun's great enemy with which it must do battle every night. Living underground, it is in touch with the underworld and has access to the powers, omniscience and magic possessed by the dead. The Huichol Cosmic Serpent has two heads, consisting of two pairs of monstrous jaws gaping at east and west: one swallows the sun at dusk, the other vomits it up at dawn. In South America, eclipses were explained as the swallowing of the sun or moon by a giant serpent. Traditional lore of Sumatra has it that a cosmic snake which inhabits the nether region will finally rise up to destroy the world.
FERTILITY As lord both of womankind and of fertility, the serpent was often regarded as being responsible for menstruation, which he caused through his bites. In the Guarani tribe of Southern Brazil the onset of puberty in a girl is expressed in the words, 'The snake has bitten her'. "A snake-entwined tree was a specific emblem if the Near-Eastern fertility goddess Ishtar. As shown by the many other earth goddesses who are depicted holding phallic snakes, serpents played important roles in vegetation fertility cults of the Mediterranean and Near East. Initiation rites of the Asia Minor fertility god Sabazius mimed the passage of a snake through the body of the acolyte. The snakes wound around the limbs of satyrs in paintings of Bacchanalian revels refer to classical fertility rites based on such earlier models and esp. associated with the sinuous vine. Snakes also featured in Semitic fertility cults which used sexual rites to approach the godhead. Eve's offer to Adam of the forbidden fruit [a symbol of the sacrilegious attempt to acquire divine powers] has been read as a Hebrew warning against the seductions of such rival cults. Hence - according to this exegesis - the Judeo-Christian symbolism of the serpent as the enemy of humankind and its later identification with Satan himself: 'that old serpent called the Devil' [Revelation 12:9]. In Western art, the snake thus became a dominant symbol of evil, sin, temptation or deceit. It appears at the foot of the cross as an emblem of the Fall, redeemed by Christ, and is shown being trampled by the Virgin Mary."5
EVIL The Mosaic story leaves no possibility of mistake as to the snake's part in the drama of the divine curse that fell as punishment upon the human race and the serpent kingdom. The snake is definitely the seducer, the tempter, the deceiver, and the very incarnation of the Spirit of Evil. Eve was beguiled by a serpent 'more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made' [Genesis 3:1]. Early Christian artists frequently portrayed this biblical scene of the fall, and to characterize it they often transposed the snake's head into a human face, sometimes the face of a young man smiling at Eve, but even more frequently the snake has the face of a woman. The bestiaries of the Middle Ages ordinarily consign the snake to the maleficent role of tempter under the name of viper or asp. In the common language, 'viper's tongue' was the expression which described that of slanderers, hypocrites, traitors, and liars. Because the tip of certain snakes' tongues ends in a fork, the artists exaggerated the natural form and made the point into a dart, an arrow, or a javelin. Like these weapons, an evil word also strikes and wounds, and sometimes kills. 6 In Tibetan Buddhism the green snake of hatred is one of the three base instincts.
DISINTEGRATION "Man, who imbued even the science of physics with some kind of feeling, coined the expression that Nature has a 'horror vacui.' The emptiness, the loss of form is for man a 'horror' which he projects into nature, even on its physical plane. Horror is also the primordial feeling of mankind towards the snake, the horror of formlessness, the revulsion felt against this in comparison with other living beings formless mass, behind which lurks the active side of formlessness, destruction of form. A snake, poisonous or not, swallows its prey in its entirety and its sharp gastric juices dissolve everything, hair, teeth and bones - nothing which gave form remains. If its poison is injected, the immediate tissues are through its proteolytic and cytolytic enzymes transformed into a formless slimy mass, and even in death the body of a bitten, poisoned victim decays and dissolves faster than normally. ... Evolutionally the snake itself is in some sense the outcome of a regressive, 'disintegrating' process within the line of the vertebrates with their enormous variety of forms. In its anatomical inner structure all paired organs are reduced in size on the left side, the left lung sometimes completely absent. Its senses are degenerated, the eye can obviously see only the movement of an object, the ear has lost its function of hearing and has become actually an organ of touch, receiving the slightest sensation of vibration. Only the most primitive sense, the sense of touch, is highly developed, making the snake aware of the slightest vibration of the ground. Also the sense of smell has to a certain extent become an organ of touch, the ever moving tongue conveying tiny particles in the air to a specialized organ in the anterior part of the palate which is connected with the olfactory nerve. The only part of its anatomy not affected by this regressive tendency is the mouth, gullet and the digestive canal, the organs which dissolve form. Through movable, anatomically separated parts of the jaws, connected through elastic ligaments, the mouth can be opened to nearly a 180 degrees and the throat, of boas for instance, is passable for whole antelopes of 60-150 lb."7
PROVINGS •• [1] Hering - self-experimentation, 1828; method: "effects of 1st and 2nd trits. and symptoms felt during trituration."
•• [2] Provings under direction of Hering - 18 provers [16 males, 2 females; 18 names are mentioned, but more people were involved, eg a man with several large warts on hands, a pale girl at puberty, a man who had been blind more than ten years, etc.], 1829-36; method: 30th dil., manner not stated but most likely in repeated doses.
•• [3] Robinson - 3 provers [2 females, 1 male]; method: 6th, 20th, or 30th dils., 4 times a day.
•• [4] Berridge - 5 provers [among which 2 patients]; method: 6th, 200th, 60M, CM, manner not stated.
[1] Michael Thompson, Michael's Snakes [manuscript]. [2] Caras, Venomous Animals of the World. [3] Greene, Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature. [4] Cooper, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. [5] Tresidder, Dictionary of Symbols. [6] Charbonneau-Lassay, The Bestiary of Christ. [7] Gutman, Lachesis, the Snake; BHJ, Jan. 1966.
Affinity
NERVES [CUTANEOUS; VASOMOTOR; sympathetic; PNEUMO-GASTRIC]. BLOOD. HEART. CIRCULATION. FEMALE ORGANS. Vertex. LEFT SIDE [THROAT; OVARY]. * LEFT SIDE. LEFT then RIGHT.
Modalities
Worse: SLEEP; AFTER. MORNING. HEAT [SPRING; SUMMER; SUN; ROOM; DRINKS]. SWALLOWING; EMPTY; liquids. SENSITIVE TO [noise; SLIGHT TOUCH or PRESSURE of CLOTHES, < NECK, waist]. RETARDED DISCHARGES. Start and close of menses. CLIMAXIS. ALCOHOL. EXTREMES of temperature. Better: OPEN AIR. FREE SECRETIONS. Hard pressure. Bathing part. COLD DRINKS. Main symptoms M SHARP-TONGUED, WITTY. Bright, censorious, jesting, satirical [very entertaining but tiring]. • "The more cause for fretfulness [about tedious and dry things], the greater inclination for humour, jest, satire, and humorous fancies." [Hering] Fascinating and charismatic, or ruthless, remorseless, tactless directness. OVERACTIVE MIND. • "Increased power of originality in all mental work, increased activity of fancy, scenes and occurrence throng to him in an unusual amount; no sooner does one idea occur to him than a number of others follow in quick succession while he is writing it down, so that he is unable to finish the record." [Hering] Great command of language. Learns foreign languages easily. OR: LOQUACITY [wants to talk all the time; jumps from one idea to another; one word often leads into another story], bombastic, exaggerating, loud. • "Sleepiness with inability to sleep, without sitting up he talks a great deal, wishes to tell stories, constantly goes from one thing to another, during this, however, he recollects himself and soon knows when he has mixed and distorted anything, he then corrects himself, but repeats same mistakes." [Hering] M Strong-minded, opinionated. • "Violent, quarrelsome, morose, for several days he involuntarily speaks louder and more distinctly than usual, thinks clearly and expresses himself well, but has no memory, does not hear or understand what others say to him." [Hughes] Or: • "Sudden doubts arise about truths of which he had hitherto been convinced." [Hughes] Disputative. • "Unusually contentious and obstinate, so that he quarrels with everything about him; so quarrelsome that he disputes with a mother about the age of her daughter, and affirms the younger to be the elder." [Hughes] Egocentric. • "The Lachesis mentality is egocentric in a marked degree, unable to laugh with those who laugh or weep with those who weep. The Lachesis subject may shed tears, but they will be of self-pity and not of sympathy with others." [Gibson] • "Advertising has a lot to do with Lachesis, concerned as it is with jealousy and one-upmanship: it amuses, entertains and catches attention, pushing its own product up while cleverly pushing other products down, and quickly injects you with temptations for the product being advertised. A lot of the entertainment industry also has to do with the Lachesis theme and I have observed that Lachesis people often get into the advertising or entertainment industries." [Sankaran] HAUGHTY. FANATICISM [esp. about religious issues]. Delusion being under supernatural control. M SUSPICION. • "Becomes easily peevish and mistrustful, believes himself intentionally injured by all about him, and attaches the most hateful significance to the most innocent occurrences." [Hering] • "A peculiar fear is 'of something lurking behind' [the snake lurking in the grass], which results in an unwillingness to turn the back towards anyone or to sit in the forward seats on a bus." [Gibson] JEALOUSY. Very territorial, possessive and manipulative. [Or feeling of being manipulated and restricted.] M INTENSE, passionate. • "A kind of ecstasy, as after sublime impressions or excessive joy, throughout day, he constantly wishes to talk and do much, and even more seems to be at his command." [Hering] Goes to EXTREMES. M VIVID imagination. • "Great inclination to be communicative, extraordinarily vivid imagination, therewith extremely impatient at tedious and dry things." [Hering] Prophetic. Quick comprehension. M Moralistic, puritan or militant on sexual or religious issues. M Strong SEX DRIVE, or high sexual standards [puritan, fanatic disapproval]. • "Very much increased sexual desire, without amorousness, - when controlled, it caused great inclination for mental labour." [Hering] G High [mental] energy in evening / at night. • "He sits up late at night at mental work, with great activity; he is impelled to productive work in evening, although he had been much fatigued during the day; he sits up all night, without slightest sleepiness or exhaustion, writes with greatest freedom and increased vigour about everything that he knows, new things constantly throng on his mind, - also next day, after very little sleep, he is just as excited, it only gradually diminishes without subsequent reaction of mind [recurring in repeated proving]." [Hering] [Lachesis muta is nocturnal.] G Low energy in morning [after sleep]. • "Weakness after breakfast; feeling as though body were overwhelmed by a disintegrating tendency, with sinking of all the forces." [Hughes] G WARM-BLOODED. Congestive heat; warm hands and feet. • "Sensation as if skin had been burnt by great heat of the sun, which was not the case." [Hughes] G LEFT-SIDED ailments; or left extending to right. G Great sensitivity. Esp. to TOUCH. Can't bear anything tight or constricting; can't wear scarves. Choking from clothing around neck, from slight pressure or touch. • "During the heat as of orgasm of blood, he is obliged to loosen the clothes about the neck, there is a sensation as though they hindered the circulation of the blood, with kind of suffocative feeling." [Hughes] G < During and after SLEEP. < Morning on waking. < LONG sleep. • "Since the fundamental phenomenon underlying all the expressions and the entire symptomatology of the effect of snake poison is the paralysis of motion, of the 'motor force' in man, it seems obvious that the state which represents a 'physiological paralysis', sleep, will aggravate the similarly directed Lachesis symptoms." [Gutman] G < WARM WET WEATHER, sultry weather [Spring and Autumn]. G > DISCHARGES, esp. menses [as soon as flow starts].
• "Relief from 'flow' is characteristic of Lachesis. The inward anxiety and pent-up emotion finds expression in the spate-like flow of speech. Whereas rest, inaction, warmth and sleep all diminish circulatory flow and aggravate the sufferings of the Lachesis patient in consequence, activity, cool fresh air and taking food all improve the flow of blood and afford a measure of relief. Active flow of discharges will have the same effect." [Gibson]
< BEFORE menses. G PAINS hammering, throbbing or bursting [due to circulatory disorder]. G < Menopause [cessation of menses]. G Circulatory disturbances. Varicose veins. High blood pressure. PURPLE, bluish DISCOLOURATIONS. P Frontal headache extending to nose, or with feeling that nasal catarrh will develop. Rubrics Mind Absentminded before epileptic attack [1/1]. Abusive, husband insulting wife before children or vice versa [3]. Desire for amusement [2]. Anger from disappointed love [1]. Love for animals, cats [1]. Answering, dictatorial [1]. Chaotic, cannot perform anything in orderly manner [1]. Colours, desire for dark blue [1]; aversion to green [1], aversion to orange [1]. Communicative [2]. Aversion to company, desire for solitude to indulge in her fancy [2/1]; aversion to company during pregnancy [1]. Complaining of trifles [2/1]. Confusion, in morning on waking [3], before epileptic attack [1], as to time and space [1]. Delusions, that body were disintegrating [2], of being charmed and cannot break the spell [2/1], there are conspiracies against him [1], of floating in air like a spirit [1], of being hated by others [1], of hearing music, sweetest and sublimest melody [2], she were someone else and in the hands of a strong power [1/1], of being carried into space while lying [2], is under superhuman control [2], hearing voices commanding him to commit crime [1/1], of hearing voices that he must follow [1]. Egotism, speaking always about themselves in company [1]. Fear of getting old [1]. Abundant ideas, clearness of mind, in evening [3]. Morbid impulse to run before menses [1/1]. Industrious, in evening [2/1]. Lascivious, followed by epilepsy [2/1]. Loquacity, during menses [2], in selected expressions [1/1], makes speeches [2]. Desire for mental exertion when sexual desire is controlled [1*]. Prophesying [3]. Quick to act [2]. Loss of self-control [2]. Persistent thoughts of evil [2]. Wicked disposition [3]. Vertigo On closing eyes, with nausea [2]. After relaxation [1]. Head Heat, vertex, during menopause [3]. Pain, accompanied by obstruction of nose [1], from smell of coffee [1/1]. Vision Colours before the eyes, black, flickering [3/1], blue [2]. Dim, after headache [2]. Zigzags, flickering [2]. Hearing Acute, to noises, affect the teeth [2]. Teeth Sensation as if teeth were wedge-shaped [1/1]. Throat Food lodges in throat when eating fast [1/1]. Pain, < sweets [1]. Swallowing difficult, acrid foods [3/1], liquids [3], saliva [3], sweets [3/1]. Stomach Nausea, from pressure on throat [2/1]. Abdomen Distension before epileptic attack [2; Cupr.]. Female Menses, copious, but every alternate period absent [2/1]; painful, the smaller the flow the greater the pain [2/1]. Respiration Difficult, on covering nose or mouth [2]. Chest Bubbling sensation in region of heart [1]. Palpitation, when leaning back [2], with choking in throat [1]. Limbs Jerking, lower limbs, > moving feet [1*]. Sensation as if tendons in left arm were too short on stretching it out straight [1*].
Sleep
Sleeplessness, before midnight, with talkativeness [2/1]; from burning of soles of feet [2/1]; in illuminated room [1].
Dreams
Accusations [1]. Clairvoyant, during drunkenness [1/1]. His own funeral [1/1]. Intrigues [1]. Full of invention [1]. Vengeance [1].
Generals
Stiffness, always after sleep [1*], so stiff that he could scarcely stir or move [1*], > being rubbed and stroked [1*]. Weaknes, from walking in heat of sun [2].
* Repertory additions [Hering].
Food
Aversion: [2]: Bread; tobacco; warm food. [1]: Cooked food; mother's milk; smoking; wine.
Desire: [3]: Alcohol; oysters. [2]: Beer; pickles; sour; whisky; wine. [1]: Brandy; coffee; farinaceous; flour; fruit; fruit, sour; lemonade; milk; pasta.
Worse: [3]: Cold food; warm food. [2]: Meat, spoiled; pungent, acrid. [1]: Coffee, smell of; fish; fruit; meat fried in butter [*; = sour and bitter eructations]; milk; salad; sour; sweets; tea; vegetables; vinegar.
Better: [1]: Coffee; fruit; sour; sour fruit; wine.
* Repertory addition [Hering].
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