AESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM

Every homeopathic remedy is explained in detail by William Boericke, M.D. in the Pocket Manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica and Repertory, a book which is highly respected by the homeopathy profession. The following text is excerpted from that book and explains the symptoms covered by this remedy:

AESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM
Common name: Horse Chestnut

The action of this drug is most marked on the lower bowel, producing engorged hæmorrhoidal veins, with characteristic backache, with absence of actual constipation. Much pain but little bleeding. Venous stasis general, varicose veins of purple color; everything is slowed down, digestion, heart, bowels, etc. Torpor and congestion of the liver and portal system, with constipation. The back aches and gives out and unfits the patient for business. Flying pains all over. Fullness in various parts, dry, swollen mucous membranes. Throat with hæmorrhoidal conditions.

Head: Depressed and irritable. Head dull, confused, aching as from a cold. Pressure in forehead, with nausea, followed by stitches in right hypochondrium. Pain from occiput to frontal region, with bruised sensation of the scalp; worse in the morning. Neuralgic stitches from right to left through forehead, followed by flying pains in epigastrium. Vertigo when sitting and walking.

Eyes: Heavy and hot, with lachrymation, with enlarged blood vessels. Eyeballs sore.

Nose: Dry; inspired air feels cold, nasal passages sensitive to it. Coryza, sneezing. Pressure at root of nose. Membrane over turbinate bones distended and boggy, dependent upon hepatic disorders.

Mouth: Scalded feeling. Metallic taste. Salivation. Tongue thickly coated, feels as if scalded.

Throat: Hot, dry, raw, stitching pain into ears when swallowing. Follicular pharyngitis connected with hepatic congestion. Veins in pharynx distended and tortuous. Throat sensitive to inspired air; feels excoriated and constricted, burns like fire on swallowing, in afternoon. Early stages of atrophic pharyngitis in dried-up, bilious subjects. Hawking of ropy mucus of sweetish taste.

Stomach: Weight of a stone, with gnawing, aching pain; most manifest about three hours after meals. Tenderness and fullness in region of liver.

Abdomen: Dull aching in liver and epigastrium. Pain at umbilicus. Jaundice; throbbing in hypogastrium and pelvis.

Rectum: Dry, aching. Feels full of small sticks. Anus raw, sore. Much pain after stool, with prolapse. Hæmorrhoids, with sharp shooting pains up the back; blind and bleeding; worse during climacteric. Large, hard, dry stools. Mucous membrane seems swollen and obstructs the passage. Irritation caused by ascarides and aids their expulsion. Burning in anus with chills up and down back.

Urinary: Frequent, scant, dark, muddy, hot urine. Pain in kidneys, especially left and ureter.

Male: Discharge of prostatic fluid at stool.

Female: Constant throbbing behind symphysis pubis. Leucorrhœa, with lameness of back across the sacro-iliac articulation; dark yellow, sticky corroding; worse after menses.

Chest: Feels constricted. Heart's action full and heavy, can feel pulsations all over. Laryngitis; coughs depending on hepatic disorders; hot feeling in chest; pain around heart in hæmorrhoidal subjects.

Extremities: Aching and soreness in limbs, in left acromion process with shooting down arms; finger tips numb.

Back: Lameness in neck; aching between shoulder blades; region of spine feels weak; back and legs give out. Backache affecting sacrum and hips; worse walking or stooping. When walking feet turn under. Soles feel sore, tired, and swell. Hands and feet swell, and become red after washing, feel full.

Fever: Chill at 4 pm. Chilliness up and down back. Fever 7 to 12 pm. Evening fever, skin hot and dry. Sweat profuse and hot with the fever.

Modalities: Worse, in morning on awaking, and from any motion, walking; from moving bowels; after eating, afternoon, standing. Better, cool open air.

Relationship: Aesculus glabra-Ohio-Buckeye Proctitis. Very painful, dark purple, external hæmorrhoids, with constipation and vertigo and portal congestion. Speech thick, tickling in throat, impaired vision, paresis. Phytolacca (throat dry, more often in acute cases). Negundium Americanum--Box-elder--(Engorgements of rectum and piles with great pain, ten-drop doses of tincture every two hours). Compare also: Aloe, Collinson. Nux. Sulphur.