ALLENS KEY NOTES ON SECALE CORNUTUM

SECALE CORNUTUM.

Spurred Rye; Ergot. (A Fungus; a Nosode.)

Adapted to women of thin, scrawny, feeble, cachetic appearance; irritable, nervous temperament; pale, sunken countenance. Very old, decrepit, feeble persons. Women of very lax muscular fibre; everything seems loose and open; no action; vessels flabby; passive haemorrhages, copious flow of thin, black, watery blood; the corpuscles are destroyed. Haemorrhagic diathesis; the slightest wound causes bleeding for weeks (Lach., Phos.); discharge of sanious liquid blood with a strong tendency to putrescence; tingling in the limbs and great debility, especially when the weakness is not caused by previous loss of fluids. Leucorrhoea; green, brown, offensive. Boils: small, painful with green contents, mature very slowly and heal in the same manner; very debilitating. Face: pale, pinched, ashy, sunken, hippocratic; drawn, with sunken eyes; blue rings around eyes. Unnatural, ravenous appetite; even with exhausting diarrhoea; craves acids, lemonade. Diarrhoea: profuse, watery, putrid, brown; discharged with great force (Gamb., Crot.); very exhausting; painless, involuntary; anus wide open (Apis, Phos.). Enuresis: of old people; urine pale, watery, or bloody; urine suppressed. Burning; in all parts of the body, as if sparks of fire were falling on the patient (Ars.). Gangrene; dry, senile, < from external heat. Large ecchymosis; blood blisters; often commencement of gangrene. Collapse in cholera diseases; skin cold, yet cannot bear to be covered (Camph.). The skin feels cold to the touch, yet the patient cannot tolerate covering; icy coldness of extremeties. Menses: irregular; copious, dark, fluid; with pressing, labor-like pains in abdomen; continuous discharge of watery blood until next period. Threatened abortion especially at third month (Sab.); prolonged, bearing down, forcing pains. During labor: pains irregular; too weak; feeble or ceasing; everything seems loose and open but no expulsive action; fainting. After pains: too long; too painful; hour-glass contraction. Suppression of milk; in thin, scrawny, exhausted women; the breasts do not properly fill. Pulse small, rapid, contracted and often intermittent.

Relations

. - Compare: Cinnmon in post-partum haemorrhage; it increases labor-pains, controls profuse or dangerous flooding, is always safe, while Ergot is always dangerous. Similar: to, Arsenicum, but cold and heat are opposite. Resembles Colchicum in cholera morbus.

Aggravation

. - Heat; warmth from covering, of all affected parts; in all diseases worse from heat.

Amelioration

. - In the cold air; getting cold; uncovering affected parts; rubbing.