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CAUSTICUM

Homeopathic Materia Medica by Farrington


previous remedy in chapter: LECTURE LXXI
next remedy in chapter: LECTURE LXXII CAUSTICUM

(caust)

Causticum is evidently a potash preparation, but its exact composition I do not know.
Hahnemann was not able to define it, and chemists since his time have not been able to tell of
what it is composed. Nevertheless it is a unique remedy, and is one that we cannot do without
in practice. The drug is conveniently studied under the heads placed on the board.

It has a tendency to cause paralysis and spasmodic symptoms, rheumatism, affections of the
mucous membranes, and diseases of the skin and organs generally. You will recall the fact that
there is an inimical relation between PHOSPHORUS and Causticum. These remedies do not
follow each other well, although indicated in the same class of diseases. This is to be
remembered particularly by those who use the higher and medium potencies.

The main power of Causticum is the first one on the list, the paralytic weakness which the drug
exhibits. This paralytic tendency is a genuine potash weakness. Causticum is especially suited
to patients who are timid, nervous and anxious, and full of fearful fancies, particularly in the
evening at twilight, when shadows grow longer and fancy more rife. The child, for instance, is
afraid to go to bed in the dark. This applies not to the unfortunate child who entertains these
fears by reason of faulty education, but to the child who is afraid as the result of nervous
disease. As an adult, the patient is apprehensive that something is about to happen, or he feels
conscience stricken as if he had committed some crime. When closing his eyes, he sees
frightful images. This is no new symptom to you, as you will recall it for several remedies. The
patient, especially if a woman, is apt to be tearful and melancholy. The face is a correct picture
of the mental condition, and is expressive of this low-spirited state. The face is apt to be sallow
and sickly looking. The patient is either taciturn and distrustful, or is inclined to fits of anger, with
scolding. This is, as you know, by no means dissimilar to the Phosphorus, and yet you must not
make the mistake of giving one, when the other is indicated. Memory fails. Any attempt at
mental labor is followed by untoward symptoms, such as stitches in the temples when reading
or writing, feeling of tension in the head and scalp, particularly in the forehead and about the
temples. This is worse in the evening, and also on awakening from sleep. Here again it is very
similar to Phosphorus, which also has that feeling of tension. The patient also has a rather odd
sensation, and one that is not frequently met with, and that is a feeling as though there were an
empty space between the brain and the cranial bones. This is relieved by warmth. As odd as
this symptom may seem to you, it is not too uncommon for you to make note of. Our materia
medica is not over-rich in this direction, and so we ought to utilize every such symptom that we

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can get.

The vertigo of Causticum is that which belongs to an excited brain and spine, such as we find
in the incipiency of paralysis, and even of locomotor ataxia. There is a tendency to fall either
forwards or sideways. There is with this vertigo a constant feeling of anxiety and weakness of
the head. The sight is bedimmed as though the patient were looking through a fog. Now
concomitant with these brain symptoms you have the following symptoms, one or two of which
ought to be present in order to make the picture complete. The skin in these cases is apt to be
dry and hot, and there is almost always constipation, which constipation is quite characteristic. It
is attended with a great deal of urging, probably from defective expulsive effort in the rectal
muscular fibres, with redness of the face and fulness of the bloodvessels. This symptom is very
common in weak persons and in children when they are nervously debilitated.

Very characteristic of the drug is paralysis of single parts or of single nerves. Thus you may
have to use it in paralysis of the facial nerve, particularly when it is the result of exposure to dry
cold winds. It may also be called for in ptosis, when the result of the same cause. Causticum is
still further called for in paralysis of the tongue, when deglutition and speech are more or less
destroyed, paralysis of the lips, and in glosso-pharyngeal paralysis. In this last-named disease,
you cannot expect much improvement from any remedy. The larynx and the bladder may be
attacked. These are illustrations of the local palsies which come within the range of Causticum.
These paralyses may be caused either by deep-seated nervous disease, or, very
characteristically, by exposure to cold, particularly to the intense cold of winter, when the patient
is of the rheumatic diathesis.

ACONITE, like Causticum, is useful in paralyses which are traceable to exposure to cold,
especially to dry cold winds. Aconite suits well in the beginning, and Causticum more when the
paralysis has become chronic and refuses to yield to the Aconite.

RHUS TOX. and DULCAMARA compare favorably with Causticum for paralysis of rheumatic
origin, provoked by exposure to a damp and cold atmosphere, particularly when there have
been changes from tolerably warm to cold and wet days. Dulcamara is suited to the beginning
of such cases, and not when the trouble becomes chronic. Rhus tox. is suited to chronic cases.

You may also find Causticum indicated in paralysis which arises from apoplexy ; it is not called
for, for the immediate results of the stroke, not for the congestion, nor for the exudation, but for

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the remote symptoms, when, after absorption of the effused blood has taken place, there yet
remains paralysis of the opposite side of the body.

Causticum may be applied in diseases of children. It is suited to children of a scrofulous habit


in whom, though emaciated generally and particularly about the feet, the abdomen is large and
tumefied. They are slow in learning to talk. There is a tendency to scrofulous inflammation of the
eyes, scabs form about the tarsi, the conjunctivae become injected, and the cornea inflamed.
There is a constant feeling as of sand beneath the eyelids. An eruption appears about the scalp,
especially behind the ears, making this portion of the skin raw and excoriated. The discharge is
slight in quantity and sticky in character. Often there is otorrhoea, purulent in its character. The
child stumbles when it attempts to walk. The cause of this symptom will be found in disease of
the brain or spine. These cases do not recover rapidly. There is defective nutrition in the whole
nervous system. You must instruct your patients that hygienic measures must be observed in
conjunction with medicinal, and that you can promise a cure if they will but be patient with you.

Other remedies which may be thought of here are, first, SULPHURIC ACID, which is a good
remedy for this weakness or giving way of the ankles; another is
SULPHUR
, and still another,
SILICEA
.

Still further, as illustrating the paralytic effect of Causticum, we find it causing aphonia or failure
of the voice. This may or may not be catarrhal. It is associated with great weakness of the
laryngeal muscles, which seem to refuse their office. This is often the case in phthisis and in
laryngeal troubles, whether of a tubercular nature or not. The paralytic tendency is further
illustrated in the cough. The patient is unable to expectorate. Just as under SEPIA, DROSERA,
KALI
CARB
.,
ARNICA
and a few other remedies, the patient succeeds in raising the sputum so far, when it slips back
into the pharynx. The remedy also has this as characteristic: The patient cannot cough deep
enough for relief. In addition to these paretic symptoms in catarrhs you may also add the
following: Rawness and burning down the throat and trachea, feeling as if these parts were

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denuded, and hoarseness with aggravation in the morning. At this time, also (consistent with the
action of the potash salts generally), there is accumulation of mucus in the fauces and larynx.
The sputum often tastes greasy and soapy. Drinking cold water seems to relieve the cough.
Accompanying the cough you find pain over the hips, and this is very characteristic, and, too,
the cough is often associated with involuntary spurting of urine. This last symptom is very
characteristic of Causticum. It is also found under
NATRUM
MUR
. and
SCILLA
.

In the laryngeal symptoms it is necessary to make a distinction between Causticum and PHOS
PHORUS
. One point of difference is that Phosphorus often has evening aggravation of the hoarseness;
Causticum has aggravation in the morning. Both have this nervous weakness. One symptom I
have often found indicating Phosphorus, and that is, extreme sensitiveness of the box of the
larynx. The patient dreads to cough, because it aggravates the laryngeal soreness. He dreads
to talk for the same reason. Relief from cold drinks is found only under Causticum.

More similar to Causticum yet, is CARBO VEG. Here you can make no mistake, because both
drugs follow each other well. If you do make the mistake of giving one of these when the other
is indicated, you will not injure your patient any more than from the delay caused by your
imperfect selection. Both remedies have this rawness and soreness down the throat; both have
hoarseness, Carbo veg. having aggravation in the evening and Causticum in the morning. The
former is indicated after exposure to damp evening air; the latter after dry, cold, severe winter
weather.

EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM is very similar to Causticum in that it causes hoarseness


worse in the morning. Both remedies are indicated in influenza with aching all over the body, but
Eupatorium has more soreness in the chest than it has burning and rawness.

In the hoarseness of singers or those who exert their voices a great deal, Causticum
resembles GRAPHITES and SELENIUM.

In some cases, when Causticum fails in chronic hoarseness worse in the morning or evening,

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SULPHUR
is an all-sufficient remedy.

Still another kind of cough for which you may give Causticum is one which improves up to a
certain point and then remains stationary, getting neither better nor worse.

Causticum is a good remedy for buzzing and roaring in the ears, or tinnitus aurium, when
sounds reecho unpleasantly in the ears. A voice which is of an ordinary tone, sounds loud, and
reechoes in the ear with unpleasant confusion. "When Causticum is the remedy, these
symptoms may be concomitant with catarrh of the throat involving the Eustachian tube. They
may also be symptoms of Meniere's disease, of which affection I once cured a case with
Causticum.

There is a drug which you may compare here, and that is SALICYLIC ACID, which has
caused and cured Meniere's disease.

You may also compare CARBON BISULPHIDE and the well-known CINCHONA.

We find Causticum indicated in involuntary urination or enuresis, especially in children. It is


especially called for when the accident occurs during the first sleep. The trouble is aggravated
in the winter and ceases or becomes more moderate in summer. The urine is especially liable to
escape involuntarily during the day in winter, as the result of any excitement.

For nursing women we may use Causticum when over-exertion or loss of sleep threatens their
supply of milk. This makes them very low-spirited, and they are apt to have this sallow, sickly
complexion which is characteristic of Causticum.

Causticum may be used in spasmodic diseases, even in convulsions. Thus it may be used in
epilepsy, particularly in LA PETIT MAL. When walking in the open air, the patient falls, but soon
recovers. During the unconscious stage, the patient passes urine. It may even be used when
the attacks are of a convulsive nature, especially when they recur at the new moon. Now you
are not to consider that the moon has anything to do with these epileptic attacks. It is only the

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laws which govern the relation of the planets, which regulate the tides and have to do with the
periodicity of nature generally that also apply to the moon and to the disturbances within the
human body; so it is that some symptoms are worse at new moon, others at full moon; some at
the rise and others at the fall of the tide. It does not, therefore, follow, because the patient is
worse every time at new moon, that the moon causes the aggravation. Causticum is moreover
indicated in epilepsy when it is connected with menstrual irregularities, and also when it occurs
at the age of puberty. In these symptoms Causticum is closely allied to
CALEAREA
OSTREARUM
.

Causticum is indicated in chorea when the right side of the body is affected more than the left.
The muscles of the face, tongue, arm and leg are all involved in the disorderly movements.
When the patient attempts to speak, words seem to be jerked out of the mouth. The patient is
anxious and restless in bed at night. He must sit up and change his position. He involuntarily
throws the head about, and finally he falls asleep exhausted. During sleep the legs and arms
are constantly "on the go."

Lastly, we may be called upon to use Causticum in rheumatism, especially when the joints are
stiff and the tendons shortened, drawing the limbs out of shape. It is frequently indicated in what
has been termed rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatic pains attack particularly the articulation of the
jaw. They are worse from cold and are relieved by warmth.

Now you will have to distinguish Causticum here from several other remedies. RHUS TOX.
also has rheumatism from exposure to cold. Some of the distinctions between it and Causticum
I have already given you. There is yet another good one. Rhus tox. has restlessness and relief
from motion all the time. In Causticum the restlessness only occurs at night.

GUAIACUM is to be preferred to Causticum and follows that remedy well when, in either gout
or rheumatism, there are contractions of the tendons, drawing the limbs out of shape,
aggravated by any attempt at motion, particularly if there are well-developed gouty nodosities in
the joints.

COLOCYNTH is to be remembered for articular rheumatism when the joints remain stiff and
unwieldy. The pains in the affected parts are of a boring character.

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Causticum also acts on the skin, one of its most characteristic symptoms being warts. It is
useful in the cure of these hypertrophies of the papillae when they occur on the hands or face. I
remember once giving Causticum to a child who had two warts on the under eyelid. At the end
of the third week after taking the remedy there was a string of warts over the inner canthus of
the other eye. I believed that these resulted from the Causticum. Of course, I stopped the
medicine. At the end of several weeks more, all the warts had disappeared, and the child has
had none since. This shows you that Causticum really produces and cures warts.

Causticum may be called for in colic after the failure of Colocynth. The pains are of a griping,
cutting character, and are relieved by bending double. Particularly do you find pains of this
character suggesting the drug in menstrual colic. Previous to the menses, these colicky pains
appear, and are associated with tearing pains in the back and limbs. All the sufferings cease
entirely at night.

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