CONIUM MACULATUM کونیم
Poison Hemlock.
N.O. Umbelliferae.
Tincture of fresh plant in flower.
THE ESSENTIAL FEATURES
The idea of paralysis in Conium is not so much the one we know from Socrates’ death by the ‘noggin of hemlock’; real paralysis comes only as an end result, and this may take a very long time, twenty years, thirty years, or more. Conium suffers with a gradually progressing weakness and paresis, and gradual is the key word here.
The idea is much more that of sclerosis, of becoming hard, especially the glands, which become swollen and indurated. A gradually progressing weakness with the formation of indurations during the decline, is the picture of Conium pathology.
Mental Paralysis and Induration
This process develops on all three levels. On the mental level, we observe a gradual decline of the intellectual capacities.
The patient becomes more and more dull; he has more and more difficulty in comprehension.
Thinking is slowed down, memory becomes weak, and the patient becomes forgetful. His five senses lose their acuity, and his reserves slowly ebb away. A frequent and characteristic symptom is an inability to sustain mental effort over any length of time.
All these symptoms can also be found in other remedies; but the characteristic here is the snail’s pace of the progress. It happens so gradually that the patient is not aware of the process himself. After some years he may go back in his memory and say, ‘What is happening to me?’ But it takes him years to see the declining process. Nor is this decline observed by the people around him, especially those who are in contact with him every day. The process develops too slowly and undramatically.
Even when he finally feels that something serious and deeply disturbing is going on, he will often say nothing to anybody, because no one else seems to have noticed anything. Finally a kind of stupefaction takes over, and now he feels that this state is definitely leading him into a serious condition of degeneration, of imbecility and premature senility.
Conium produces as it were areas of sclerosis, of callus in the brain. It seems to be a remedy that is very set in its thinking, to the extent that it becomes superstitious. Conium is the main remedy in superstition or ‘superstitious thoughts’. It is like an induration in a certain area of the brain.
The patients tend to have compulsive thoughts and to execute compulsive actions, but only in a separate arena of their mental lives. The remainder of the brain is working beautifully, and they are otherwise normal people, performing their tasks, holding their jobs, and fulfilling all their social functions, but in this separate mental arena they have some fixed ideas which they cannot get rid of.
Those superstitious obsessions may be more or less harmless in themselves. They might think, ‘If I don’t touch the corner when I go around it, something bad is going to happen to me’. Or, ‘I mustn’t step on the cracks between the slabs of the pavement, and if I do, I will suffer some misfortune’. These ideas may make life intolerable for the people around them.
I remember a case in which the wife related that her husband would not take off his trousers to go to bed until everything was absolutely quiet outside. If he could hear a car, he was unable to take off his trousers. So he waited until he couldn’t hear the car any more, and then he started pulling off his trousers.
But soon the noise of another car came, and he couldn’t continue taking off his trousers: he had to wait for absolute quiet. This man was a manager in a bank, he had a responsible position, and he was normal in every other way, but he could not be talked out of this obsession.
Of course, there was more to it that. He admitted that his memory had begun to fail, and that his concentration was not the same as it had been. He could not read as much as he used to, because he was slower to comprehend. All of these functions came back after the remedy, Conium 10 M in a single dose, and the compulsive action has disappeared.
Conium’s fixed ideas often (but not always) centre around needing absolute quiet, as in the case above, and problems with strangers. This is especially true regarding toilets. They often cannot urinate or pass stool if there are people near the bathroom. And they can get terrible constipation because of that, especially when they are travelling, because there are nearly always people around. It is beautiful to see how such behaviour is taken away by the correct remedy.
Emotional Paralysis and Induration
On the emotional level, we again witness this gradual paralysis with induration. The emotions are gradually weakened and paralyzed until it is impossible to bring them to the surface, to ‘move’ them. The final state is a condition of complete indifference and apathy, when they find no interest in anything. And when they have gone so far, they are no more able to show emotion when it is needed or appropriate to the surroundings.
If they get a present, they cannot be happy, and they are also unable to cry when they would like to; their feelings may still be there but they are petrified and indurated, they cannot be moved. Then they become gloomy and unhappy; they do not want company and they feel unable to communicate with anybody.
But this indifference doesn’t develop quickly, and again it takes a long time until the pathology has gone this far. Before that state of indifference, there is a stage where patients are worried because they feel that something is happening with their mental condition. They are worried about their health, they wonder what is happening in their mind, how all this will end. They become anxious, and in this state they do not want to be alone. In Conium the aversion to company is not a very strong feature.
How can we speak of induration presented on the emotional level? It manifests as a kind of insensitivity. Conium people are not sweet persons, they are hard, ‘down to earth’, materialistic and practical people. As the doctor you will see that they are demanding. They will be loyal to you as long as they feel you can help them and as you are not hurting them. But if there is a stage where, in their opinion, you are not helping them enough, they will immediately let you know, demanding their ‘rights’.
Conium people are materialists in a different fashion to Platina. They don’t have the extreme egotism and haughtiness of Platina, they don’t think that they are ‘big’. Rather, Conium’s attachment is to the material world around him, his property, his habits, his family.
Conium says: ‘This is mine. This table is mine. This is my house’. Once any of this is taken away from him, there is a definite morbid, pathological reaction, and this is often accompanied by an induration on the physical level, a tumour which is usually malignant.
These symptoms after a ‘material loss’ can occur very suddenly, even immediately, at quite another speed compared to the slow and gradual paralysis of the remedy. If, for instance, the patient’s house burns down and many valuable things are lost, he can develop symptoms very quickly, especially hard tumours, even cancer, and in such a case Conium will often be indicated.
Suppression of Sexuality
The biggest material loss for Conium is the deprivation of regular sexual activity. The moment they lose regular sex with their partner, problems start. The body may function well as long as there is a regular release on the sexual level, a release of the hormones at regular intervals with a specific partner.
This is what they need to feel in balance, otherwise the balance is lost. Therefore you will often see Conium indicated in women who have lost or separated from their partner and do not have a new love affair.
Female Conium patients depend on the regular sexual activity they are used to, and if the husband dies, the woman does not easily start a new affair. Because of this failure to release the hormones, problems will arise, which can go from vertigo, which is usually the first to appear, to trembling and weakness.
It can go as far as developing severe problems, even cancer, and especially cancer of the breast or of the uterus. Cancer of cervix uteri is also often seen. The idea is that a hard tumour develops, mostly of the glands, but it can be anywhere.
Conium is the main remedy for the gland that is affected greatly by sexual activity in man: the prostate. If a suppression of sexual urge in a Conium man is present, the first gland that is affected is the prostate, it can swell and even cause prostate cancer. Moreover, Conium is an important remedy in indurated and malignant swelling of the testes.
Also we may see hypochondria in unmarried men with very strict principles of sexual morality: ‘Hypochondriacal complaints, especially in unmarried people who are strictly abstinent in sexual matters’.
Here the comparison with Platina is again very interesting. Conium people have a strong sexual urge, as do Platina, but the difference is that Conium are not oversexed, they are more on the practical side. They don’t think of sex day and night, like Platina, rather they look upon sex as something they just need from time to time to release their hormones; they are people without illusions, matter of fact in their approach to sex.
You have to understand the mentality: they feel that the good things which we can enjoy in life are given to us, it is our right to enjoy them. They do not tend to have bad feelings, feelings of guilt or doubt, neither do they tend to hypersexual behaviour. We can say, they know exactly what they want: sex and the release of orgasm is what they need to keep their organism functioning, that is the idea, and they take it as a fact or, as it were, their right.
But if this outlet stops suddenly, once this ‘right’ is taken away from them, then there is a kind of dizziness, which they constantly complain about, they say that their head is never clear. They start trembling, shaking all over and a feeling of paralytic weakness eventually takes them over. The dizziness can become really severe, and Meniere’s Syndrome may develop. Things seem to be turning around them.
The worst situation is when they lie in bed and want to turn to the other side; this movement aggravates them terribly. (This should be differentiated from the similar symptom in Silicea, where the vertigo in bed only arises from turning to the left.)
On sudden motion, for example on turning the head to look behind them, everything seems to turn around them. They complain about the head problem, it is nearly indescribable for them: they do not say vertigo, instead they use words like a buzzing inside the head, a noise, a dizziness, or similar terms.
In a recent case from Argentina (quoted in Klassische Homoopathie 5/93), a 57-year-old man got ‘vertigo, worse when turning around in bed, with a feeling as though the brain had gone to sleep’. This came on after his wife had (in his words), ‘condemned him to celibacy’.
In other cases, patients start to tremble and feel as if paralyzed all over; even mentally paralyzed, unable to perform any duties, with problems in concentrating; unable to stand mental effort for any length of time.
Conium are also fixed on their sexual patterns, not at all flexible. They are not oversexed, and they do not tend to promiscuity or extramarital relationships. On the contrary, when they make a decision to keep with one partner, they will stay together until the partner dies.
Typical symptoms will be: complaints of swollen glands, the head is not clear and there are headaches, even very severe headaches, or headaches together with vertigo. The patient starts trembling and feels weak. With this picture you might prescribe Gelsemium, Cocculus or Carbo vegetabilis. But once you have the information about the loss of a partner and the abrupt end to sexual activity, then there is only one remedy that will help and this is Conium.
Of course, such a history also happens to other people who do not need a remedy, but where other organisms can manage this interruption and can balance themselves, it will be Conium who, almost invariably, will develop pathological symptoms.
Further Mental Symptoms
Some proving symptoms to show how the Conium pathology affects the intellect:
‘Dullness; difficulty in understanding what he is reading, with confusion of the head’.
‘Dullness, like stupefaction; difficulty in understanding what he is reading’.
‘Want of memory’.
‘Forgetfulness and weakness in head‘.
‘Unable to correctly express oneself by talking, with difficulty of recollecting things’.
‘Inability to sustain any mental effort’.
There are often states of difficulty in concentration and absence of mind, even insensibility and confusion, especially after awaking from a midday nap.
There are many emotional symptoms where anxiety, gloomy thoughts, fears and peevishness dominate. They correspond to the state where the patient begins to feel his decline (see above), but they can also appear in other situations.
For instance: ‘Deeply absorbed in thought, he meditates anxiously about present and future, searching for solitude’. ‘Hysterical anxiety’. ‘Ill humour and gloom’. ‘Constant ill humour and peevishness’. ‘Peevish mood; does not know what to do; time passes too slowly’.
From a proving by Robinson: ‘She feels peevish, vexed, and easily put out about trifles’. Where these symptoms dominate there may be a rather contradictory attitude toward human company, as is manifested in this proving symptom: ‘Shuns people and their approach, and at the same time dread to be alone’.
In the context of the menses, there are also states of sensitivity, tearfulness and restlessness. ‘Before the menses, aching in all limbs, with tearful mood, restlessness and anxious worry about trifles’. Or: ‘She is easily moved by trifles, moved to tears’.
In the Chronic Diseases, we even find a veritable weeping fit which later transforms into vertigo and weakness: ‘Paroxysm: alone at home, she feels an inclination to weep; after yielding to it, the weeping changes to a loud sobbing; afterwards flickering before the eyes and indistinct vision, so that she had to hold on to something when walking; afterwards weariness in all limbs and a dull headache’.
A number of mental symptoms corresponds with the stage of indifference, apathy, emotional paralysis and petrefaction: ‘Very ill-humoured, every afternoon, from 3 pm to 6 pm, as though a great guilt weighed upon him, with paralysed feeling in all the limbs, indifference, and taking no interest in anything’. ‘Morose mood; everything about him makes an unpleasant impression upon him’. ‘Disinclination for work’. ‘No pleasant feelings whatsoever’.
Conium has successfully been used in depressive states, and it is easy to see that the depressive element prevails in the remedy. There is on record a cured case of a woman who fell into a ‘very unhappy mood’ every 14 days. She had no desire to dress, to eat anything, to talk or to see her children.
The periodic recurrence of this unhappy state may be a hint that Conium could also be indicated in cyclic manic-depressive states. And though the depressive symptoms preponderate, we still see proving symptoms like this: ‘He is averse to being near people, and to the talk of those passing him; is inclined to seize hold of and abuse them’.
A cured case, fragments of which are very often quoted in literature, shows that Conium can be useful when there is an alternation of marked manic and depressive stages:
‘A 16-year-old boy… became mentally ill… It was peculiar that he was alternately in a depressed mood for 10 days and then again in an excited mood for 10 days. He is silent for 10 days, sad and worried, picks his fingers, lies in bed most of the time, does not like to answer questions, with more frequent urination during the night. Confused feeling in head, often sits as if he were in a dream. Eats and drinks but has a stool only every third day; weak memory. Timid, cannot be persuaded to any work. Sleep very restless. Then very excited for 10 days, vehement, domineering, quarrelsome, tends to scold. Likes to wear his best clothes, makes useless purchases and then cares very little for them, wastes or ruins them; does not want to work, prefers to play; picks quarrels, does not tolerate contradiction. Continuously picks his nose which bleeds easily’.
Conditions of Weakness
As mentioned above, the Conium weakness increases very gradually, year after year, finally amounting to complete paralysis, and this process may take many years. Conium is an important remedy in chronic recreational drug users; not for the acute consequences of high doses of cocaine, for instance, but for people who are more careful with drugs.
They take small doses of drugs, they enjoy them little by little for many years, and very gradually they keep going into a state of loss of power on all levels, mental, emotional, and physical, so slowly that it is hard to perceive. After many years, the mind is totally paralysed, they cannot think any more, imagination is exhausted, all energy is lost. In chronic drug users who do not take large or strong doses of narcotics, Conium will be indicated if there is such a gradual loss of power.
I include alcohol as a recreational drug here; Conium is in any case sensitive to alcohol and is easily affected by it. Hahnemann writes: ‘The least quantity of spirituous drink intoxicates him’. Headaches are aggravated from alcohol, and the characteristic process of weakening and decline may be sped up by alcohol. But we have to know that underneath there is a predisposition; alcohol and drugs may catalyze and intensify the process, but they are not the deepest reason for the pathology.
On the physical plane, the weakness of Conium especially manifests in the urinary and genital systems. In spite of the intensity of the sexual desire, the sexual powers are weak, and there is often impotence. Men tend to have ejaculatio praecox, and women may also get orgasms without even touching their partner. To quote Hahnemann’s own delicate phrase: Emission even while frolicking with a woman’.
I once treated a female patient who used to flirt with priests. She liked to make them excited, and she would have a complete orgasm while she was flirting with them, without ever touching them. This symptom made me think of Conium. You may wonder why I call this a state of weakness. But in fact this is how I understand it: the sexual organs are weakened, almost paralyzed, and they are unable to hold back the release of the orgasm. A little stimulation, then orgasm happens, and that is it.
A keynote for Conium is interrupted urination. People in a Conium state will be urinating and the urination suddenly stops, in the middle of the flow. They wait a moment, and it starts again, stops again and so on, three, four or five times, before the urinary tract is empty. ‘The discharge of urine suddenly stops during urination and only continues after a while’.
Such a symptom may point to a weakness of the bladder in expelling the urine, but sometimes also to a stenosis of the urethra or to the swelling of the prostate. If the urethra is narrowed because of an enlargement of the prostate gland, Conium may be indicated as well. If the urethral stricture is caused by inflammation and cicatrization, you should also think of Thuja and Medorrhinum when other symptoms agree.
An interesting modality: complaints of the extremities which respond to Conium are relieved by letting the affected limb hang down. This modality is indeed a strange, rare, and peculiar symptom that should call Conium to mind. As Kent puts it: ‘Conium differs from a great many medicines. It is common for pains and aches to be relieved by putting the foot up on a chair; by putting them up in bed. But the patient with rheumatism, with ulceration and the other strange sufferings of the legs, will lie down and permits his legs to hang over the bed up as far as the knee’.
An ulcer on the foot that is painful even when lying in bed, is ameliorated by hanging the legs down from the knee. We may comprehend this peculiar symptom by knowing the pathology of the remedy, especially from the case of Socrates, who observed that its actions started by paralyzing first the lower extremities. It is therefore possible that Conium restricts the blood flow in the lower extremities, causing problems thereafter.
The Conium Vertigo
Vertigo is one of the most prominent features of the remedy. It may occur on rising from bed or from a seat, or on walking, on going downstairs, when lying, etc. But the most characteristic modality is vertigo on turning in bed. Also on moving the eyes or the head, especially in sideways motion. In this kind of vertigo Conium is the main remedy together with Belladonna, especially when the vertigo occurs when turning around in bed. Clarke mentions a case of lumbago with the symptom ‘cannot turn over in bed without being dizzy’ that was cured with Conium.
You may also compare Cocculus, because the Conium vertigo frequently has to do with an accommodation weakness of the eyes, as in Cocculus.
Nash reports a case where a patient seemed to have all the symptoms of locomotor ataxia. The striking symptom was that he could not, when walking, turn the head or the eyes the least bit sideways without staggering or falling. When he went out with his wife, he always walked in front of her or behind her, but never by her side! This strange behaviour made Nash think of Conium.
Some more proving symptoms and cured symptoms relating to the Conium vertigo:
Vertigo, in the morning, on rising from bed.
Very dizzy while walking.
Vertigo, like turning in a circle, on rising from his seat.
Vertigo, worse when lying down, as though the bed were turning in a circle.
Vertigo on becoming erect after stooping, as if the head would burst.
Vertigo on looking around, as though the patient were to fall sideways.
‘On raising my eyes from the object upon which they had been fixed to a more distant one the vision was confused, and a feeling of giddiness suddenly came over me. So long as my eyes were fixed on a given object the giddiness disappeared… ‘Another prover even staggered when walking, but as soon as he closed his eyes, ‘… I could now walk straight and steady, and, what was more, without any feeling of giddiness’.
Generalities
Glandular induration as a result of contusion. Conium has acted very well even in mammary cancer which developed after a blow against the breast, in cancer of the lip after long-time pressure by a tobacco pipe, etc.
Lassitude and weakness, even amounting to fainting. A striking symptom is a tremulous weakness after every stool that ceases in the open air. ‘Sudden relaxation (a kind of paralytic weakness) while walking’ has also been cured by Conium. But usually the weakness will develop very slowly and deeply, as discussed above. ‘So weak that she has to lie down; sick and weary in the morning in bed, with ill-humour, sleepiness and pains in the stomach’.
The paralytic states of Conium usually begin below and proceed upwards (as in Socrates’ death); this direction of development may also manifest in other Conium symptoms.
They are affected by cold and exertion.
Conium patients tend to have complaints from over-lifting.
They are particularly sensitive to complaints from walking in the open air where exertion and cold may combine: ‘Great liability to catch a cold, even in a room, after a walk in the open air, during which he had perspired’. ‘Walking in the open air makes her weary, and the air affects her‘. Extreme exhaustion, sudden relaxation, ill humour and other complaints appear after walking in the open air.
Warmth will usually ameliorate, particularly warmth of the sun. ‘Chilly with trembling in all limbs, and therefore she has to remain constantly in the warmth of the sun’. Bright light, however, will often disturb the patient very much, and excessive photophobia is a striking symptom of Conium.
Two strange symptoms that can be understood as keynotes:
Perspiration as soon as one closes the eyes. This symptom permitted Lippe to cure a 80-year-old man who suffered from hemiplegia.
‘The clothes lie upon chest and shoulders like a load’. Conium may be indicated in mononucleosis infectiosa, especially in the glandular form (if the symptoms agree, of course). Other remedies frequently indicated in this disease are Iodium and Mercurius.
Head
‘Violent headache with vertigo, from which she suffered for three or four days; she was sad and silent, just sitting there the whole time’. Sick headaches with vertigo and an inability to urinate. There are also headaches with unsatisfactory and too small stools.
Constant sensation of confusion and stupefaction in the head. ‘Constant dullness of the forehead, in the region of the eyebrows and the root of the nose’. Alcohol aggravates, even when mixed with water and drunk in very small quantities. ‘Even watered wine rises to his head’.
Great sensitivity of the brain, especially to jar. ‘On shaking the head, headache from the forehead to the occiput, as if something were loose in there’. ‘On every step a snapping in the vertex, without pain’. ‘Forcing and griping in the forehead, seemingly coming from the stomach, with much sensitiveness of the brain; the brain is shaken even by a noise or by talking’. There are also headaches from over-study.
Sensations of heaviness in the head, especially in the occiput, arising when sitting bent forward and ceasing when raising the head.
Strange sensations: ‘Numbness, with sensation of coldness, of one side of the head’. Sensation in the right half of the brain as of a large foreign body. Hot spots on top or back of head, worse from excitement or overwork.
Often there are severe headaches from within outward. ‘Headache, as if the brain were too full and the skull would burst, in the morning, on waking’.
Sticking pain in top of head and forehead, from within outward. Very severe occipital pains on every heartbeat, ‘as though the occiput were pierced with a knife’. Throbbing headache, felt in the forehead.
On the other hand, there is also a sensation of ‘giddy constriction of the brain’ or a headache ‘as if externally contracted’ above the os frontale, or else a headache ‘like a compression from both temples, after every meal’.
Drawing in the head, as soon as one goes out in the cold air; relieved on closing the eyes. With this, there is a sensation of ‘great weakness in the head and the whole body’.
Tearing pains in occiput and back of neck, but also in the orbits, with constant nausea, urging to lie down.
Headaches with blindness or disturbances of vision, also with a sensation as if something like a fringe was falling over eyes.
Falling hair.
Eyes
The most important symptom is a weakness of the eye muscles, and particularly of the accommodation of the eyes, sometimes amounting to paralysis. The remedy may be indicated in presbyopia, as Hahnemann already presumed in the Materia Medica Pura. ‘Far-sightedness; could distinctly see rather distant objects’.
‘Affected with a weakness and dazzling of my eyes, together with a giddiness and debility of my whole body, especially the muscles of my arms and legs, so that when I attempted to walk I was apt to stagger like a person who had drunk too much liquor’.
Double vision occasionally occurs, as well as squinting, etc. Conium affects all the muscles in the region of the eyes, producing difficulties with every kind of motion of the eyes, on looking around or behind, turning the head, etc. ‘Eyes feel as if pulled outward from nose’. And: ‘He could hardly raise the eyelids, which seemed pressed down by a heavy weight’.
Weakness of vision may be cured with Conium, but also many other disturbances of vision. For instance: Sees before his eyes dark spots and coloured stripes, or clouds and bright spots, or else bows, sometimes playing in all rainbow colours; red vision.
‘Fiery zigzags, moving through each other before the sight, on closing the eyes at night’.
Excessive photophobia, frequently without any signs of inflammation in the eye. Dazzling of the eyes from light of day, even in the room. Photophobia may be coupled with lid spasms. From a classic case: I frequently saw the most excessive photophobia with spasm of the lids. After hard efforts to separate the lids it finally succeeded, and a flood of hot tears spurted out, but cornea as well as sclerotica proved free of any inflammatory process’.
Disturbances of vision that are caused by injury, as for instance: ophthalmia after injury by a wood-chip, with dimness of cornea; dimness of the lens (cataract) after a blow against the eye, etc.
Much and constant dilatation of the pupils.
Burning in the eyes, and especially of the inner surface of the eyelids. Pressure in eyes, worse when reading.
A biting pain in the inner canthi as if something caustic had come in, with lachrymation. Itching beneath the eyes, rubbing does not ameliorate but leads to a burning biting pain.
Repeated manifestation of styes, especially if styes became indurated A strange symptom from Bonninghausen: cold feeling in eyes when walking in the open air.
Ears
In Meniere’s disease it is the first remedy to be thought of.
Much accumulation of earwax, even obstruction of the external meatus, with partial deafness. Conium may act curatively, especially when this complaint is coupled with pain in the liver region.
Something comes before the ears on blowing the nose and they feel stopped.
Or else: painful sensitivity of hearing, noise startles him.
Noises in the ears: ringing, buzzing, humming, throbbing. Tinnitus.
Tearing and stinging pains in and around the ears.
Or else: drawing stinging pain, from within outward, in the ear.
Swelling and induration of the parotid gland, with painful tension of the skin.
Nose
Tendency to bore or pick in the nose, which bleeds easily.
Epistaxis when sneezing.
Excessively acute sense of smell.
Burning at the nostrils.
Stitching and sore pain in the nasal septum, also on tip of nose.
Too frequent sneezing, or obstruction of nose, which may become chronic. ‘Obstructed nose for years’ (Hahnemann).
Discharge of pus from the nose, mingled with blood.
Before the menses, pain inside in root of nose, aggravated by blowing nose and pressure.
Face
Eruptions in face, itching; pustular or vesicular; gnawing ulcers in face. Blisters at the upper lip, at the margin of the red portion, painful. Indurated tumours on cheeks and especially on lips, also as a consequence of pressure or contusion (tobacco pipe). Malignant tumours of the lips. Hardening and enlargement of the submandibular glands. Tearing stinging face-ache, directly before the ear; or a drawing pain from the jaw to the ear, or else painful tension near the ear. Facial pains that mostly occur at night.
Mouth
Drawing toothache, extending through the temples, aggravated by eating cold things, but not by cold drinking.
Drawing, jerking or gnawing toothache, with a sensation as if the teeth were loose, especially on mastication.
Tongue swollen, stiff, and painful, with difficult speech and articulation. Paralysis of the tongue.
Saliva tasting sour, or bitter taste in mouth.
Throat
Bitter taste in throat.
Constant inclination to swallow, especially when walking in the wind. Strange rising in the throat, with a sense of stuffing as if something were lodged there. This may be a hysterical symptom (globus hystericu): ‘Pressure from pit of stomach upwards into oesophagus, as though a round body were ascending’. Or else: ‘Fullness in pit of throat, with fruitless efforts to belch’.
Respiration, Chest and Cough
Irritation to cough in the larynx, especially in this form: dry spot in the larynx, where there is a crawling, and almost constant irritation to dry cough. There may also be itching, tingling or scraping in throat, provoking dry cough.
Conium cured a 13-year-old boy who had a ‘clapping noise’ in the larynx with the act of expiration. The noise was distinctly audible and was usually preceded by marked spasmodic twitching of the right facial muscles.
Difficult inspiration, also with air hunger; with a sensation as if the chest couldn’t expand enough, or else with a feeling of constriction of the chest; especially in the morning on waking and in the evening in bed.
Cough that occurs almost exclusively when first lying down, immediately after assuming a lying position; has to sit up and cough it out, afterwards he has rest.
Cough which is triggered by lying down and deep breathing; especially in the evening and at night.
Loose cough, but nothing can be expectorated; has to swallow the mucus which is detached by the cough. Conium is often indicated in obstinate dry cough remaining after influenza or a cold.
Cough which is followed by vomiturition. ‘Night cough continued without any intermission until gagging and vomiting occurred’.
A sharp thrust directly through the chest, from the sternum to the spine.
Stitching pains in the sternum and in the whole thorax are frequent with Conium.
‘Violent stitches in side, as if a knife were plunged into it, causing loud moaning’.
Or else: violent stitches in the right side of the chest about the nipple, on every inspiration while walking, relieved by hard pressure with the hand. Dry cough, excited by the slightest exposure to cold air, even by putting arms out of bed {Hepar).
Heart
Palpitation of the heart after stool, with intermission of heart beats. Violent palpitation: after drinking , when rising from bed.
Stomach
With many Conium complaints, there is loss of appetite. But Conium has marked desires: for salt and salty food; for sour food; for coffee. Milk does not agree. Bread tastes bad and ‘does not go down’.
Empty eructations are frequent. They can start in the morning and continue all day. Usually they are odourless and tasteless, but there is also ‘putrid eructation’.
Much nausea after every meal, with inclination to vomit and often enough with real vomiting. Conium may be indicated in vomiting in pregnancy.
Violent spasmodic pains in the stomach, especially if coupled with a tendency to constipation. From a cured case: ‘Feeling as though the stomach contracted, as though a heavy weight were pressing upon it; she thinks she cannot tighten her clothes, and believes the stomach cramp would never stop, it only remits sometimes but increases again, making her sufferings intolerable’.
Contracting stomach pains, together with feeling of coldness in stomach and back; sensation of soreness and rawness in stomach.
In excessive stomach pains, e.g. in the context of a perforating ulcer or even cancer, Conium has been given with good results; the pains and the general state of the patients were markedly ameliorated. In one case the pains were gnawing and appeared mostly two or three hours after a meal and during the night, in another case they had a burning and cramping character and extended as far as the back and the shoulders. But the most remarkable modality was, ‘pains relieved most in the knee-elbow position’.
Abdomen
Distension of abdomen, the belly is often hard and tense, with flatulence. ‘Hardness and severe bloating of abdomen, in the evening after eating, the umbilicus protrudes which makes her sleep restless’. Swelling of the mesenteric lymph nodes.
Rapid bloating of the belly especially after drinking milk. Cutting in the abdomen precedes the discharge of flatus.
A strange concomitant symptom: ‘Distension of abdomen, like flatulent colic, in the evening, with coldness of one foot’ (compare Lycopodium). Stitching pains in the liver region, sometimes with intervals, or painful tearing there. Swelling of liver with pressive pain and accumulation of ear-wax, causing partial deafness.
Painful tension about the hypochondria, as from a constricting band.
Pressive-tensive pain in the left hypochondrium, extending to the left side of the hypogastrium. Oppressive contraction of the hypogastrium. Contractive pain in lower abdomen, like after-pains. Pinching pains in the abdomen, as if diarrhoea would come on. Spasmodic or bearing-down pains, like menstrual colic or labour pains. Sore feeling in belly when walking on stone pavement. Trembling of the whole abdomen.
Rectum and Stool
Conium has some very characteristic and unusual symptoms in this region. The symptom ‘Discharge of cold flatus’ seems to be unique in the materia medica. Clarke reports that in a case of severe diarrhoea where the stools felt cold Conium was successfully given.
However, there is also the opposite sensation that is much more ‘normal’.
‘During stool, burning in the rectum’ and ‘Heat in lower portion of rectum’ (but not in the anus!).
Conium has been useful in constipation with ineffectual urging or with unsatisfactory stools. Sometimes violent stomach cramps in combination with the constipation. Hard stools, only every other day. ‘Constant urging without any stool. Frequent unsuccessful urging’. Several stools every day, but in very small quantities.
The remedy may also be indicated in diarrhoea, especially if watery or liquid stools are mixed with hard particles and are discharged together with noisy flatus. ‘Frequent diarrhoea; stools like water, with many eructations, and copious passage of urine’. Watery diarrhoea, intermingled with undigested food.
The attacks of weakness after stool are very characteristic, too. After every stool, tremulous weakness, that ceases in the open air. And: after stool, palpitation of the heart, with intermission of heart beats.
Stools coated with blood.
Involuntary discharge of stool during sleep.
Stitches in the anus when not at stool.
Urinary Organs
The best-known symptom in this region has been quoted above:
‘The discharge of urine suddenly stops during urination and only continues after a while’.
Frequently there is also cutting in urethra during urination with it; also burning during or after micturition.
The problems with urination may have their cause in a weakness of the bladder but also in hypertrophy of the prostate gland.
Frequent urging to urinate and strangury; with burning in urethra and feeling of heat during micturition.
Frequent urination at night. ‘Has to get up at 2 o’clock to urinate, several nights successively’.
Dribbling of urine in old men.
Turbid, whitish and viscous urine.
Urine is more easily discharged while standing, but in the beginning almost nothing is discharged even when standing; later on, however, the urine flows freely.
Male Genitalia
The ill effects of sudden loss of a sexual partner in both sexes are discussed extensively above.
Sexual weakness: impotence; erections absent, incomplete or of too short duration. Depression and weariness after coition.
But sexual desire is indeed present. Intense sexual desire with lack of sexual potency is characteristic. ‘Vivid sexual desire, without erection’.
Frequent discharge of prostatic fluid, on every emotion, on straining for stool, etc.; also with itching of prepuce.
Nocturnal ejaculations without erotic dreams. Spermatorrhoea; with intermittent discharge of urine.
Swelling and induration of the testicles, especially after contusion; cancer of testicles. Cancer of the prostate.
Cutting pain in the urethra at the moment of ejaculation.
Violent pain of testes. ‘Pain as though a knife was cutting through the middle of the scrotum, between the testes upward as far as the root of the penis; with frequent short repetitions‘. In his Dictionary, Clarke reports a case of contusion of the testes with very similar pains; Conium C 200 relieved in 5 minutes! There is also pressive, pinching and tearing pain in the testicles.
Female Genitalia
In this region, Conium has particularly caused and cured indurations and hard tumours with stinging, shooting pains. It has been frequently used in mammary and uterine cancer, and in induration and enlargement of the ovaries as well. Some proving symptoms: ‘Hardness of the right breast, with painfulness to touch and nightly stitches with it’. ‘Stitches, as with needles, in the left mammary gland’. Conium proved especially useful, in hard tumours after a blow or beating against the mamma.
Moreover, Conium is indicated in many complaints in connection with menstruation. Some symptoms caused and cured by Conium that occurred before the menses: aching in limbs, tearful mood, restlessness and anxious worry about every trifle; anxious dreams; pains in mammae, especially on every jar; dry heat in whole body, but without thirst; stinging pains in the liver region, more at night while lying down and especially on inspiration; flatulence; pain inside in the root of nose.
Dysmenorrhoea with violent uterine cramps. Some descriptions: ‘Grinding pain is felt above pudendum; the abdomen becomes inflated, the pain affects the chest and stitches are felt in left side’. Pressure downward and drawing in the thigh or stitching pain in the vagina. Contractive pain in the hypogastrium disappearing on walking in the open air. Concomitant symptoms: great fear when alone, but dread of strangers or company; stitches in mammae; headache; eruption all over body, consisting of small red nodules that burn violently after scratching and disappear with the end of the menstrual bleeding.
Moreover, Conium has effected a cessation or suppression of the menses, and so it has acted curatively in amenorrhoea and complaints from amenorrhoea, and in too scanty menses as well. If the ‘premenstrual’ symptoms mentioned above occur every four weeks but the bleeding is totally absent, there is a good chance that Conium is indicated. ‘Menses stopped by putting hands in cold water’.
In a recent case, this symptom permitted the cure of a patient whose menses stopped after the first day. She had prepared beans in cold water before. Now she suffered with pain and congestion in abdomen, back and mammae (which was not the case otherwise). The cause made the therapist think of Conium, and the remedy brought the menses back and made the pain disappear (Sharma, Klassische Homoopathie 6/92).
Leucorrhoea which is preceded by much abdominal pain and a weak and lame feeling in the small of the back; afterwards lassitude and exhaustion. ‘Leucorrhoea of a white acrid mucus, which caused burning’. ‘Thick, milky leucorrhoea, with contractive labour-like colic coming from both sides’. A discharge of bloody mucus is also reported. Conium may also be indicated in vomiting of pregnancy; in complete insomnia and extreme exhaustion for days after childbirth, with excessive photophobia; in oozing of milk from the breasts long after weaning of the child, but also in dwindling of the mammae. ‘The female milk glands shrivel from Conium so that the most beautiful bosom looks like an empty fold of the skin’ (from Heraclides). Severe itching deep in the vagina.
Violent stitches at the female parts.
Vulva very sore to the touch.
Neck and Back
Conium is an important remedy in indurated swelling of cervical lymph nodes.
‘Crawling in the spine, as from falling asleep’. Permanent sensation of numbness in the region of the shoulder blades.
Tensive pains in back, especially in the muscles below the scapulae, aggravated by raising the arms.
Pains as if sprained in the left side of back, also in the neck.
Stitches in small of back, with a drawing pain through the lumbar vertebrae, when standing.
Pain in small of back, especially drawing or dragging downward, in connection with the menses, prolapsus of the uterus or something like that.
Bad effects from spinal injury. There is a case report about a young man who had fallen from the second storey onto the stone pavement of the street. More than a year later he still suffered from very annoying pain in the lumbar region (on which he had fallen), especially when laughing, sneezing or taking a quick breath. Conium brought about a great, rapid and permanent amelioration of the pain.
Extremities
Weakness, powerlessness, prostration, lame feelings and paralysis of the extremities are symptoms of Conium.
‘Loss of power on awaking from siesta, arms and legs as if separated from the body’. The limbs are stiff, heavy, almost useless, moving them provokes a ‘disagreeable feeling’, can hardly walk.
Paralysis first of the lower, then of the upper extremities.
Trembling of all limbs.
Sensations of numbness and coldness, especially in fingers and toes, sometimes spreading from there towards the body.
Bruised feeling in all the joints, especially during rest; much better or disappearing during motion.
Shoulders feel sore, as if pressed on. The clothes seem to lie on them like a load.
Swelling and induration of the axillar lymph nodes, also when there are tumours of the mammae.
Cramp-like pain in the muscles of the forearms, especially when leaning on arms.
Cracking in the wrist, especially in the evening.
Perspiration of the palms.
Yellow spots on fingers; yellow finger nails.
Gait is faltering, vacillating, staggering as if drunk, dragging his legs after him.
When he closes his eyes, he is able to walk straight and steady, but when they are open he begins to stagger.
Pain going from hypogastric region down legs, in dysmenorrhoea.
Feeling of weakness, even to trembling, in the right thigh, while walking.
Or else: on walking in the open air, cramp-like pain in the anterior muscles of the right thigh.
Tiredness and ‘fatigue pain’ in knees.
Cracking of the knees on becoming erect.
Cramps in calves; tensive, stiff pains in the calves.
‘Painful reddish spots on the calves, later turning yellow or green like from contusions, and preventing the mobility of the foot which is bent like from shortening of the tendons’.
Coldness of one foot, with distension of abdomen.
Sensation as if the bone pierced the skin at the heel.
Numbness and insensibility of the feet; they tend to become cold, with liability to catch a cold.
Sleep
Insomnia and late falling asleep, only after midnight.
Restless sleep, nightmares, anxious dreams and frightful dreams, interrupting the sleep.
Dreams of dead people and corpses; of people who are alive in reality but dead in the dream.
Or else: sleep too deep, like stupefied, unrefreshing; headache aggravated after sleep. Especially after waking from siesta symptoms like ‘insensibility’, confusion, powerlessness etc. will occur.
Irresistible sleepiness during the day. ‘He could not refrain from sleep with all his will power; had to lie down and sleep’.
Fever
Great internal and external heat, with great nervousness. Burning heat through the whole body. Sensation of internal and external heat after sleep. A fever symptom from the Chronic Diseases; ‘Sensation of heat in whole body, also increased warmth of skin which can be felt externally, with dry and sticky lips, without thirst, even with aversion to drinks, and with an insipid saliva in the mouth; noise and shining objects affect him, as well as any motion; he wants to sit lonesome with closed eyes’. Chilliness, shivering and coldness, especially early in the morning and in the afternoon; at 5 am; from 3 to 5 pm.
‘Chill with trembling in all limbs, so he always has to stay in the warmth of the sun’.
The Conium perspiration has one striking and very important modality: ‘Sweat as soon as she closes the eyes, only in the beginning of the sleep; even by day, when sleeping in sitting position’.
Skin
Itching of the skin, especially of the backs of the fingers. ‘Itching stitches, as from fleas, one directly after the other, here and there on the body, but always single stitches, never two at the same time’.
Yellow discolouration of the skin, also of the finger nails and the whites of eyes.
Brown spots on the body.
Urticaria after violent bodily exercise.
Obstinate herpetic eruptions in different places, e.g. around the neck, behind the ears, in the crook of the knee, on hands and forearms; usually moist and burning, worse by warmth.
An example by Hartlaub: ‘Sudden herpetic eruption on forearm, beginning as a small spot and gradually spreading over arm; skin became porous, very red and raw, with furrows and depressions. Sore, broken places formed here and there in the skin, viscid lymph or blood oozing from them, lymph drying and forming white crusts under which the exudation still continues; intense itching in affected parts, with irresistible desire to scratch, particularly in evening; surrounding lymphatics swollen and involved…’ Burning nodules on the skin during the menses, disappearing with the end of the bleeding. Petechia, especially in old people. Tendency to necrotic ulcers.
CLINICAL
Asthma. Bladder, inflammation of. Breast, affections of. Bronchitis. Bruises. Cancer. Cataract. Chorea. Cough. Cysts, sebaceous. Depression. Diphtheritic paralysis. Dysmenia. Erisipelas. Eyes, affections of. Galactorrhoea. Herpes. Hypochondriasis. Jaundice. Liver, enlarged. Melancholia. Menstruation, disordered. Numbness. Ovaries, affections of. Paralysis. Peritonitis. Phthisis. Pregnancy, breasts painful in. Prostatitis. Ptoses. Scrofula. Spermatorrhoea. Sterility. Stomach, affections of. Testicles, affections of. Trismus. Tumours. Ulcers. Vertigo. Vision, disordered.
RELATIONS
Antidoted by: Coffea, Dulcamera, Nitricum acidum, Nitri spiritus dulcis
It antidotes: Mercurius, Nitricum acidum, Sulphur.
Compatible: Arnica, Arsenicum, Belladonna, Calcarea phosphorica, Lycopodium, Nux vomica, Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Rhus tox., Stramonium.
Incompatible: Psorinum
