Witch-hazel. N.O. Hamamelidaceae.
(A shrub growing in all parts of U.S., in damp woods or along streams; flowers in autumn, flowers yellow, the seeds ripen the year following).
Tincture of fresh bark of twigs and root. A resinoid, Hamamelin, is also prepared.
The deep red colour of the tincture of Hamamelis may be taken as the signature of its therapeutic action. No remedy has a wider sphere of usefulness in cases of haemorrhage and disordered blood-vessels.
It has also a decided relation to the effects of mechanical injuries including burns of the first degree, and as a local application it takes rank with Arnica and Calendula in the homoeopathic amamentarium.
Hering, who learned its properties from Mr. Pond, of “Pond’s Extract” fame (Pond was a patient of Hering’s), made the first provings and introduced the remedy into homoeopathy. He defines its position as being between Acon. And Arn. “Pond’s Extract” is an aqueous distillate prepared from the leaves.
A number of interesting superstitions are associated with the shrub; and shoots of it are used as “divining rods” for discovering water and metals.
Hale has given a very full account of the remedy.
Phlebitis; varicosis; haemorrhoids; venous haemorrhages, these are the conditions likely to require Hamam.
The local application of Hamam. to a sprained knee has been known to set up inflammation in the veins of the part, and the provers who had varicose veins experienced in them increased sensitiveness and unusual sensations, and a number were cured.
In congestion, inflammation, and bleeding of haemorrhoidal vessels, Ham. has a great range of action; and like that other great pile remedy, Aesculus h., it has also a marked action in the throat.
Ham. is called for in cases of “varicose angina,” where the veins of the pharynx are large and blue. The haemorrhages in which Ham. is indicated are mostly dark. They may occur from any orifice.
Metrorrhagia, menorrhagia, vicarious menstruation and haemorrhages between the periods are met by it.
“Intense soreness” is one of the notes of Hamamelis. The part from which the flow of blood proceeds feels sore and bruised. This distinguishes it from Chi. in passive haemorrhages.
It is a leading indication for it in cases of orchitis and ovarian affections; and also in phlebitis and varicose veins. In piles there is much bleeding and marked soreness of the part; the back feels as if it would break (Aesc.h. has little or no bleeding). There is a taste of blood in the mouth.
The haemorrhage of Ham. causes great exhaustion (out of proportion to the amount of loss), but there is also a tired, aching feeling in the back and lower limbs, independently of haemorrhages.
REGIONS
VEINS [rectum; genitals; limbs; throat]. Liver. Abdominal and chest walls.
MODALITIES
Worse from injuries, bruises, pressure. Worse warm, moist air, open, humid, cold, jar touch during day, (pains). Motion and exertion in general aggravates. Worse in open air. Worse in rainy weather.
MIND
Forgetful. No desire to study or work. Irritable. Hemorrhages with tranquil mind. Wants “the respect due to me” shown. Feels unappreciated. Depressed in mind, also after emissions with regretful mind. Irritable.
VERTIGO
Swimming sensation on rising. Vertigo when stooping. Nausea and vertigo with desire to lie down.
HEAD
Feeling as of a bolt from temple to temple. Numbness over frontal bone.Hammering headache, worse left temple. Stupid feeling in head. Headache after emission. Stupor, headache, crowding fullness in head and neck, also in forehead. Fullness of head, followed by a nosebleed. Bursting headache on waking. Dullness and fullness. Headache after an emission. Hammering over left eye, as if he would go out of his mind.
EYES
Traumatic effects. Black-eye. Iritis, conjunctivitis. Blood shot eyes. Sore pain in the eyes. Hastens absorption of intra-occular hemorrhage. Painful weakness. Eyes feel forced out, better pressure of finger. Sore pain in eyes, eyes painful under slight pressure. Eyes inflamed, vessels greatly
injected, caused by a foreign substance. Also after operations intense soreness.
EAR
Deafness in right ear, passes off by noon. Bleeding at right ear, also nose-bleed, which clears her head, relieving her. Buzzing, ringing in ears.
NOSE
Over sensitive smell. Bad smell from the nose. Nosebleeds, flow passive non-coagulable with tightness at the bridge of the nose. Profuse nosebleed, idiopathic or vicarious. Nosebleeds with hemiplegia in old men.
The nosebleed clears her head and affords great relief. Sneezing spells, watery, excoriating, burning discharge. Nose feels stopped up.
MOUTH
Aphthae, tip of the tongue .Profuse bleeding gums after extraction of teeth, . Taste,is like sulphur. Varicose veins of tongue .
STOMACH
Thirst. Averse to water, makes him sick to think of it. Nausea from pork.No appetite for breakfast, considerable thirst,better by small quantities of water. Appetite good.
Very thirsty in afternoon and evening, throat dry.
RECTUM
Anus feels sore and raw. Hemorrhoids, bleeding profusely with soreness. Pulsation in rectum. Large quantities of tar-like blood in stools. Bloody dysentery. Stools: costive, hard, coated with mucus. Large
quantities of a tar-like blood (typhoid). Itching at the anus.
MALE
Severe neuralgic pains in the testicles. Pain running down the spermatic (Berb.) cords into the testes (Merc.); orchitis (Puls); intense soreness and swelling. Varicocele. Hematocele.
FEMALE
Vicarious menstruation. Menses dark, profuse with soreness in abdomen. Jolting brings on menses. Uterine hemorrhage, bearing-down pain in back. Bleeding, midway between menstrual periods, only in daytime.
Inter-menstrual pain. Ovarian congestion and neuralgia, feel very sore.
Ovaritis after a blow after abortion with soreness over the whole abdomen.
Milk-leg. During pregnancy, legs become painful, can neither stand or walk.
Leucorrhea, bloody with soreness of vagina. Vagina very tender, sore. Vulva itches. Vaginismus.
KUB
Hematuria with increased desire for urination. Hematuria, passive congestion of the kidneys, dull pain in kidney region. Dull ache about kidneys. Urine clear copious. Scanty high-colored urine. Irritation of the urethra, followed by a discharge and ardor urine.
RESPIRATORY
Hemoptysis, tickling cough with Taste of blood. When lying, felt a smothering sensation. Tickling cough, taste of blood on awaking. Dry cough, sever stinging in the uvula, as if it would break. Expectoration thick, yellowish or greenish gray, tasting putrid.
EXTREMITIES
Great lassitude and weariness of the limbs and elsewhere. Tired feeling in arms and legs.Varicose veins.
Varicose ulcers with bloody bases. Milk-leg, hemorrhoids and sore nipples after confinement.
Very sore muscles and joints.
CLINICAL CONDITIONS
Ankles, weak. Black-eye. Bruises. Burns. Cancer. Chilblains. Enteric fever. Gastric ulcers. Hematemesis. Hematocele. Hematuria. Hemorrhages. Hemorrhoids. Leucorrhea. Menstruation, disorders, Miscarriage,
threatened. Nipples, sore. Noises, head. Nosebleeds. Orchitis. Ovaries, disorders. Phimosis. Phlegmasia alba dolens. Purpura. Rheumatism. Scurvy. Small-pox. Tuberculosis. Ulcers. Uterus disorders. Vagina. spasm. Varicocele. Varicose veins. Wounds.
RELATIONS
Antidoted by; Arn., Camph., Chi., Puls. (toothache).
Complementary to; Ferrum in haemorrhages.
Compare; Arn., Calend. (“is better than either in hastening the absorption of intra-ocular haemorrhage,” Hering); Chlora, Secal. (purpura);
Fl.ac., Lach.,Secal., Puls., Nux, Aesc., Nit.ac. (in varicose veins and piles);
Spo., Puls.(orchitis Ham. has more soreness); Act.r. (abdominal soreness after labour;
Ham. is an excellent external application); Bry. (vicarious menstruation);
Nit.ac. (haemorrhage in typhoid; Nit.ac. light, Ham. dark);
Bell., Euphorb.,Rhus, Tereb. (as an application in burns of first degree); Sanguisuga (haemorrhages).
HECLA LAVA.
The finer ash from Mount Hecla, falling in distant localities. Trituration.
Hecla [Icelandic for ‘cloak’] is 1557 metres above sea level, and several hundred metres above its surroundings. The largest eruptions date from 1104 and 1766, the last two took place in 1947 and 1970. The craters are usually filled with snow and a cloud is usually floating above.
The ash and scoriae of this volcano contain silica, Alumina, Lime, Magnesia, with some Oxide of Iron.
When travelling in Iceland, Garth Wilkinson noticed that the sheep in the vicinity of Hecla had immense exostoses on the jaws. Another effect noticed was the drying up of the milk both in sheep and cows. The finer ash which fell on pastures at a distance, was the most deleterious; the gross ash near the
mountain was inert.
In cows, post-mortem examination showed the intestines filled with ashes, hardened to a mass, and stomach coated over with a pitch-black membrane spotted with brown, and difficult to remove by washing; the jaw teeth were covered with a shining metallic crust.
Several young horses died from lumps on the jaw-bones, so large as to cause dislocation. Sheep, when slaughtered, were found to be of bluish hue internally, and the intestines were friable. In many cases worms from two or three inches long, with pale grey bodies and brown heads, and a little thicker than horse-hair, were found in the bronchia. In sheep the osseous and dental systems were much affected. The head-bones, and especially the jaw-bones, swelled and became so friable that when boiled they fell to pieces. The thigh,
and especially the shin bones, swelled and bulged. The jaws were sometimes covered with large swellings, which spread and were looser or texture and darker in colour than the bone; these could be separated from the bone without injuring it; but in some fatal cases a hole going down to the marrow was
discovered under the swelling.
Garth Wilkinson adds to the above that he has used Hecla with excellent effect in toothache, gum abscess, swellings about the jaws and in difficultdentition.
Clinical experience has shown the power of Hecla to arrest many forms of bone disease, including osteo-sarcoma, scrofulous and syphilitic osteitis andexostoses.
The swelling amenable to it are painful and sensitive to touch; < from touch and pressure.
The glands are affected almost as much as the bones; “induration and infiltration of cervical glands, studding neck like a row of pearls.” The right side has been more predominantly affected. The subjoined schema is compiled mainly from cured symptoms.
FACE
Facial neuralgia from decayed teeth and after extraction. Polyps, commencing in antrum of Highmore tumor, deforming face, forcing eyeball upward, obstructing nostrils, extending downward into the mouth, impeding breathing and chewing, nosebleed, headache.
Violent pain in upper jaw. Abscess or enlargement of bone remaining after tooth extraction. Enlargement of maxillary bone. Painful to touch: upper jaw, swelling under right alae nasi sensitive. Slight pressure:
right cuspid of upper jaw sensitive. From injury to jaw: had enlargement of maxillary bone.
MOUTH
Toothaches, especially of teeth are very sensitive to pressure with swelling about jaws. Neuralgia from carious tooth in cavity from which tooth has been extracted. Abscess of gums. Difficult dentition in scrofulous and rickety children. Pain in wound, where tooth has been extracted.
CLINICAL CONDITIONS
Antrum of Highmore, tumor. Bones disorders. Breast tumors. Dentition, difficult. Exostoses. Glands disorders. Jaws, tumors. Milk, deficient. Neuralgia. Osteitis deformans. Osteomalacia. Osteosarcoma.
Periostitis. Rickets. Syphilis. Teeth, decay. Toothache. Tumors. White swelling. Whitlow.
RELATIONS
Compare; Conchiol., Silic., Calc., Slag, Phos., Stilling., Sulph., Kali iod, Amphisb., Symphyt., Ruta.
Silicea. Calcarea carbonica. Calcarea fluorica. Mercurius. Phosphorus. Hepar sulphuris. Fluoricum acidum. Staphisagria.
Conchiolinum – diaphysis of bone affected, parts extremely sensitive to touch.
Amphisbena – great affinity for the jaw bones, worse by air and dampness.