(Deadly Nightshade)
Belladonna acts upon every part of the nervous
system, producing active congestion, furious excitement, perverted special
senses, twitching, convulsions and pain. It has a marked action on the
vascular system, skin and glands. Belladonna always is associated with hot,
red skin, flushed face, glaring eyes, throbbing carotids, excited mental
state, hyperesthesia of all senses, delirium, restless sleep, convulsive
movements, dryness of mouth and throat with aversion to water, neuralgic
pains that come and go suddenly. Heat, redness, throbbing and
burning. Great children's remedy. Epileptic spasms followed by nausea
and vomiting. Scarlet fever and also prophylactic. Here use the
thirtieth potency. Exophthalmic goitre. Corresponds to the symptoms
of "airsickness" in aviators. Give as preventive. No thirst, anxiety of
fear. Belladonna stands for violence of attack and
suddenness of onset. Belladonna for the extreme of thyroid toxemia.
Use 1X (Beebe). | ||
| Mind. Patient
lives in a world of his own, engrossed by spectres and visions and
oblivious to surrounding realities. While the retina is insensible to
actual objects, a host of visual hallucinations throng about him and come
to him from within. He is acutely alive and crazed by a flood of
subjective visual impressions and fantastic illusions.
Hallucinations; sees monsters, hideous faces. Delirium; frightful images;
furious; rages, bites, strikes; desire to escape. Loss of
consciousness. Disinclined to talk. Perversity, with tears. Acuteness of
all senses. Changeableness. | ||
| Head. Vertigo,
with falling to left side or backwards. Sensitive to least contact. Much
throbbing and heat. Palpitation reverberating in head with labored
breathing. Pain; fullness, especially in forehead, also occiput, and
temples. Headache from suppressed catarrhal flow. Sudden outcries. Pain
worse light, noise, jar, lying down and in afternoon; better by
pressure and semierect posture. Boring of head into pillow; drawn backward
and rolls from side to side. Constant moaning. Hair splits; is dry and
comes out. Headache worse on right side and when lying down; ill effects,
cold, etc.; from having hair cut. | ||
| Face. Red,
bluish red, hot, swollen, shining; convulsive motion of muscles of
face. Swelling of upper lip. Facial neuralgia with twitching muscles and
flushed face. | ||
| Eyes. Throbbing
deep in eyes on lying down. Pupils dilated. Eyes feel swollen and
protruding, staring, brilliant; conjunctiva red; dry, burn;
photophobia; shooting in eyes. Exophthalmus. Ocular illusions; fiery
appearance. Diplopia, squinting, spasms of lids. Sensation as if
eyes were half closed. Eyelids swollen. Fundus congested. | ||
| Ears. Tearing
pain in middle and external ear. Humming noises. Membrana tympani bulges
and injected. Parotid gland swollen. Sensitive to loud tones. Hearing very
acute. Otitis media. Pain causes delirium. Child cries out in sleep;
throbbing and beating pain deep in ear, synchronous with heart beat.
Hematoma auris. Acute and subacute conditions of Eustachian tube.
Autophony (hearing one's voice in ear). | ||
| Nose. Imaginary
odors. Tingling in tip of nose. Red and swollen. Bleeding of nose,
with red face. Coryza; mucus mixed with blood. | ||
| Mouth. Dry.
Throbbing pain in teeth. Gumboil. Tongue red on edges. Strawberry tongue.
Grinding of teeth. Tongue swollen and painful.
Stammering. | ||
| Throat. Dry, as
if glazed; angry looking congestion; red, worse on right side.
Tonsils enlarged; throat feels constricted; difficult deglutition;
worse, liquids. Sensation of a lump. Esophagus dry; feels contracted.
Spasms in throat. Continual inclination to swallow. Scraping
sensation. Muscles of deglutition very sensitive. Hypertrophy of mucous
membrane. | ||
| Stomach. Loss
of appetite. Averse to meat and milk. Spasmodic pain in epigastrium.
Constriction; pain runs to spine. Nausea and vomiting. Great thirst for
cold water. Spasms of stomach. Empty retching. Abhorrence of liquids.
Spasmodic hiccough. Dread of drinking. Uncontrollable
vomiting. | ||
| Abdomen.
Distended, hot. Transverse colon protrudes like a pad. Tender, swollen.
Pain as if clutched by a hand; worse, jar, pressure. Cutting pain across;
stitches in left side of abdomen, when coughing, sneezing, or touching it.
Extreme sensitiveness to touch, bedclothes, etc. [Lach.] | ||
| Stool. Thin,
green, dysenteric; in lumps like chalk. Shuddering during stool. Stinging
pain in rectum; spasmodic stricture. Piles more sensitive with backache.
Prolapsus ani. [Ign.; Podo.] | ||
| Urine.
Retention. Acute urinary infections. Sensation of motion in bladder
as of a worm. Urine scanty, with tenesmus; dark and turbid, loaded
with phosphates. Vesical region sensitive. Incontinence, continuous
dropping. Frequent and profuse. Hematuria where no pathological
condition can be found. Prostatic hypertrophy. | ||
| Male. Testicles
hard, drawn up, inflamed. Nocturnal sweat of genitals. Flow of prostatic
fluid. Desire diminished. | ||
| Female.
Sensitive forcing downwards, as if all the viscera would protrude at
genitals. Dryness and heat of vagina. Dragging around loins. Pain in
sacrum. Menses increased; bright red, too early, too profuse. Hemorrhage
hot. Cutting pain from hip to hip. Menses and lochia very offensive
and hot. Labor pains come and go suddenly. Mastitis pain,
throbbing, redness, streaks radiate from nipple. Breasts feel heavy; are
hard and red. Tumors of breast, pain worse lying down. Badly smelling
Hemorrhages, hot gushes of blood. Diminished lochia. | ||
| Respiratory.
Drying in nose, fauces, larynx, and trachea. Tickling, short, dry cough;
worse at night. Larynx feels sore. Respiration oppressed, quick,
unequal. Cheyne-Stokes respiration. [Op.]
Hoarse; loss of voice. Painless hoarseness. Cough with pain in left
hip. Barking cough, whooping cough, with pain in stomach before attack,
with expectoration of blood. Stitches in chest when coughing. Larynx
very painful; feels as if a foreign body were in it, with cough.
High, piping voice. Moaning at every breath. | ||
| Heart. Violent
palpitation, reverberating in head, with labored breathing. Palpitation
from least exertion. Throbbing all through body. Dicrotism. Heart seemed
too large. Rapid but weakened pulse. | ||
| Extremities.
Shooting pains along limbs. Joints swollen, red, shining, with red streaks
radiating. Tottering gait. Shifting rheumatic pains. Phlegmasia alba
dolens. Jerking limbs. Spasms. Involuntary limping. Cold
extremities. | ||
| Back. Stiff
neck. Swelling of glands of neck. Pain in nape, as if it would
break. Pressure on dorsal region most painful. Lumbago, with pain in hips
and thighs. | ||
| Skin. Dry and
hot; swollen, sensitive; burns scarlet, smooth. Eruption like
scarlatina, suddenly spreading. Erythema; pustules on face. Glands
swollen, tender, red. Boils. Acne rosacea. Suppurative wounds.
Alternate redness and paleness of the skin. Indurations after
inflammations. Erysipelas. | ||
| Fever. A high
feverish state with comparative absence of toxemia. Burning, pungent,
steaming, heat. Feet icy cold. Superficial blood vessels, distended.
Perspiration dry only on head. No thirst with fever. | ||
| Sleep.
Restless, crying out, gritting of teeth. Kept awake by pulsation of blood
vessels. Screams out in sleep. Sleeplessness, with drowsiness. Starting
when closing the eyes or during sleep. Sleeps with hands under head.
[Ars.] | ||
| Modalities.
Worse, touch, jar, noise, draft, after noon, lying down.
Better, semierect. | ||
| Relationship.
Compare: Calcarea is often required after
Belladonna. Antidote: Coff.; Op.; Acon. | ||
| Dose. First to
thirtieth potency and higher. Must be repeated frequently in acute
diseases. |