BELLADONNA

Characteristic indications
Pains gradually increase, suddenly decline and appear elsewhere.
Painful spots are sore on gentle pressure, yet firm pressure is tolerated.
Hot, red skin, flushed face, full, hard pulse, throbbing carotids, with delirium and hyperæsthesia of the senses.
Great dilatation of the pupils, photophobia and injected eyes.
It affects principally the right side of the body.

Aggravation from jarring the bed.

Congestion to the head, feeling of heat with red face, injected eyes, intense throbbing headache, the carotids throb, sharp pains so violent as to make the patient scream out.

The child bores its head into the pillow, and rolls it from side to side, dilated pupils, squinting, grinding of the teeth with bright red hot flushed face and throbbing fontanelles.

Visions, screaming out and desire to escape, full of fear and imaginings, sensation as if falling, and the patient clutches the air ; sometimes a stupor, which, if aroused out of, they strike people, bark and bite like a dog and are very violent.

Skin is hot, and on raising the bed clothes a hot steam seems to stream out ; sometimes a hot sweat which does not relieve is present.

Belladonna face is not always red
In summer complaints, dentition, colic, etc., where there is irritation of the brain, startings in sleep, it may be very pale.

Eye
Sudden pains and violent symptoms, eyes feel swollen and protruding, conjunctiva red and pupils very much dilated, eyes feel as if full of sand, desire to rub the eyes which relieves. Great photophobia.

Ear
Severe boring pains in the ears, which come on suddenly and shoot from one ear into the other.

Tongue
A white tongue with the papillæ showing through it, the so-called "Strawberry tongue".

Sore throat
Great dryness and bright redness of the throat, the fauces are inflamed, the tonsils are swollen and enlarged, worse on the right side, food and liquids are ejected through the nose on swallowing.

Stomach
Pains in the stomach, worse during a meal. Gastralgia, pains go to spine, not much thirst.

Peritonitis and inflammations about the abdomen
Swollen, tense, sensitive abdomen, cannot bear the weight of the bed clothes, jarring of the bed aggravates, on raising the clothes the heat streams out.

Diarrhœa of Belladonna
Summer complaints of children with crying and screaming and suddenly bending backwards, diarrhœa from cold with slimy, bloody discharges and some tenesmus.

Urinary trouble
Involuntary urination during sleep in children.

Belladonna in the female organs
Violent bearing down pains, worse lying down. Menses early and copious with cramp-like pains in the back. Congestive dysmenorrhœa with offensive discharge. Uterine hæmorrhage, bright red and hot.

Drugs having the symptom : Pressure toward

the genital organs as if everything would fall out- distinguished
Belladonna : This symptom is worse when the patient sits bent over and when she walks, but is better when she sits or stands.
Sepia is just the reverse ; the symptom is aggravated by sitting up, still more by standing, and most of all by walking, while it is relieved by lying down.
Nux vomica has the pressing down more in the back with irritable rectum, frequent ineffectual desire to stool, scanty evacuations and little leucorrhœa.
Pulsatilla has the same symptom as Belladonna, and is aggravated by lying down, but heat also aggravates and the open air relieves ; there is pressure on the bladder with frequent micturition. The leucorrhœa is thick.
Podophyllum is similar, but in prolapsus it is only indicated when the rectum and vagina are prolapsed.

Belladonna in labor
Pain in back as if it would break, labor pains come and go suddenly and no progress is made ; there is a spasmodic condition of the os which retards labor, the os feels hot to the touch.

Respiratory symptoms
There is tickling in the larynx and a dry, hacking cough, which is paroxysmal ; dryness and tightness in the upper part of the chest, worse evenings, and at night ; the larynx is sore and hot.

Pulse of Belladonna
Full and hard, or slow - especially in cerebral congestion.

Rheumatic symptoms
Cutting, tearing, lightning-like pains in the joints, pain streaks from the joint in various directions.
Rheumatic stiffness of the neck from getting hair cut or getting head wet.

Fever
When there are symptoms of delirium and cerebral excitement present, and a pungent heat of the skin.

Skin
Bright scarlet redness of the skin.
Erysipelas with bright red, rapid swelling of the skin, the skin is smooth, shining and tense, the pains are sharp, lancinating, stinging and throbbing.

Lachesis compared in erysipelas
The face is purplish instead of red, and the patient is drowsy and weaker.

Belladonna in scarlet fever
Smooth, bright red rash, the cerebral irritation, the sore throat, the strawberry tongue and the swelling of the glands.

Prophylactic power of Belladonna
Hahnemann discovered that Belladonna was a prophylactic in scarlet fever ; and it has certainly been verified clinically.

Swellings, such as boils and abscesses
They are very painful. Swellings where there is throbbing, redness and tendency to suppuration. The rapidity of the swelling is characteristic.

Nervous symptoms of Belladonna
Neuralgic pains, which come on suddenly and disappear suddenly ; lancinating pains, aggravated by motion. Convulsions and spasms in teething children, from repelled eruption, with red face, hot head, throbbing carotids, starting from sleep in terror.

Stannum compared in neuralgia
Stannum has pains that increase gradually and decrease gradually.

Antidotes to Belladonna
Coffea, Nux vom. and Opium.