Bufo is a remedy of the animal kingdom. It is prepared from the toad.
Bufo has symptoms of Baryta carbonica and Hyoscyamus put together. Like Baryta carbonica it has a childish and naive behaviour, is foolish and underdeveloped mentally. Like Hyoscyamus, it has shamelessness, high sexuality, loquacity and malice. Like other remedies of the animal kingdom it has an animated nature, a fear of animals and a certain mischievousness. It resembles some of the remedies of the spider group, as it is sensitive to music, deceitful and destructive, and also has attractive behaviour. All these elements combine to give Bufo a unique character.
When you consider the childishness, the lack of maturity and control, and the high sexuality, you have the idea that the adult control over his instincts is absent. Therefore whenever he has any urge, whether it be an urge to eat or a sexual impulse, he has to gratify it at once. He cannot postpone pleasure. If he has a sexual impulse, it has to be fulfilled, and so he goes off alone and masturbates. Hence we have the classic symptom: “Desires solitude for masturbation”.
In my experience, one of the main things you can note about a Bufo person is the combination of good physical development and a childish mind. Added to these is the shamelessness and the sexuality. These persons can become very violently angry sometimes, and at other times you will see foolish giggling. There can be quite a bit of egotism in their talk, but this will appear foolish.
Among the physical symptoms I have seen a strong desire for sweets and a crack in the centre of the tongue. There is also a tendency towards obesity and there are convulsions which are connected with the sexual sphere.
It is a near syphilitic remedy, with a lot of destructive pathology which includes paralysis and carbuncles.
Phatak mentions, aptly that the patient is “low minded”. He also says: “It arouses the lowest passions” and “It is a remedy for depravities”.
Like Baryta carbonica and some other syphilitic remedies, it also has early senility. In the Materia Medica we find that Baryta muriatica has some similarity to Bufo with high sexuality and childishness.
Rubrics
– Childish behaviour.
– Company aversion to, desires solitude to practice masturbation.
– Deceitful.
– Destructiveness.
– Fear, animals, of.
– Idiocy.
– Imbecility.
– Laughing.
– Malicious.
– Rage, fury.
– Strike, desire to.
Kent
– Tongue cracked in the centre.
– Desires sweets.
Phatak
– Childish, but body grows.
