By Will Taylor (maybe)
 |
Although Hahnemann did not include Belladonna among the remedy provings of "antipsorics" published in The Chronic Diseases, he did state, in Materia Medica Pura (vol. 1, 3rd edition; 1830): "From the following completed list of the symptoms of belladonna it will readily be seen that it corresponds in similarity to a number of morbid states not infrequently met with in life, and that hence it must frequently be homeopathically applicable for curative purposes, like a polychrest." |
"Belladonna, in the small dose just described, is, if the case is homeopathically adapted, capable of curing the most acute diseases (in which it acts with rapidity proportionate to the nature of the disorder). On the other hand, it is not less serviceable in the most chronic ailments”
Ernest Farrington, in his _Clinical Materia Medica_, states: "It [Belladonna] seems to be best suited to rather fleshy and phlegmatic persons of a plethoric habit who are subject to congestions, especially of the head. This is something like the constitution of Calcarea ostrearum [Calc-c], but Belladonna has not the pallor of that remedy. The Belladonna patients are pleasant and jolly enough when well, but they become exceedingly irritable and overbearing when ill. This pleasant sociability which makes them so companionable seems to be converted into the opposite condition when they are afflicted with disease. It is also suited to precocious children, with big head and small body, who may be scrofulous, with a tendency to swelling of the lips and enlargement of glands. They learn things rapidly; sleep is unnatural; the head is hot and the cheeks red; they scream out during sleep."
"It is one of our best remedies both in acute and chronic rheumatism."
Belladonna's complementarity to Calc-c really describes three distinguishable phenomena:
(1) Individuals with a chronic disharmony of Calc-c character are subject to Belladonna true acute states. Belladonna matches a pace and violence of acute disease that is quiet foreign to the slowness of reaction and assimilation that is characteristic of the Calc-c state, but otherwise shares much of the totality of the Calc-c state. So a Belladonna acute is dissimilar enough to the Calc-c chronic picture to transiently displace it and supervene in occupying the economy of the organism. This may be seen (as two examples) in Belladonna ear infections (hot, furious onset & pace) in a child of chronic Calc-c disharmony, or (in a more lasting manner) in a Belladonna post-traumatic stress reaction (terror, violence, rapid reaction) in e.g. a Vietnam war veteran of former Calc-c (Horrible things & sad stories affect him profoundly) character [Stramonium, another complimentary acute of Calc-c, is perhaps more common here]. These folks will benefit from Belladonna in their present state, and then afterwards very likely move back into their former Calc-c chronic state (see the Organon, A738; "...the weaker disease that the patient already has is postponed and suspended by the stronger supervening disease until the new one has run its course or been cured, and then the old one comes forth again uncured.") So the kid with the ear infection and the vet with PTSD may well move back into a Calc-c state after the acute state is resolved (we have to take the case at that point to know this!), and in order to effect a thorough cure, it may be necessary to "follow" with Calc-c -- never as a knee-jerk or in a routinist fashion, but if the case moves to a Calc-c picture. So the kid with the recurrent Belladonna ear infections might need Calc-c if, when the acute is resolved, he moves back into a Calc-c state of disharmony, one aspect of which is his susceptibility to further Belladonna acutes. And the Vietnam vet might need Calc-c after the Belladonna PTSD is resolved, because Horrible Things and Sad Stories still affect him profoundly, and he gets Calc-c-ish nightmares (no longer his Belladonna night terrors) if he watches the evening news. Remember too, that Belladonna is complementary in this way to many other remedies as well - so sometimes Belladonna is followed, in this manner, by Bryonia, or Rhus toxicodendron, or Sulphur, or Lycopodium, etc. (see Boenninghausen's Concordances for Belladonna for a rather comprehensive list of remedy relations).
(2) An individual who superficially *appears* to have a chronic disharmony of Calc-c character, and who may have even exhibited a partial response to that remedy, may in fact be better served with Belladonna as a simillimum. A true Belladonna chronic state may look very much like Calc-c. What distinguishes it principally from Calc-c are most often recurrent rapid, wild, violent, hot, congestive symptoms that contradict a Calc-c state. E.g., recurrent violent migraines of rapid onset; recurrent violent menstrual cramps with bearing down & hot clotted menses; frequent menopausal hot flashes of sudden onset & brief duration; the big sweaty-headed "Calc-c" appearing baby with violent colic arching backwards. These folks may be served well by Belladonna for their chronic disharmony, without the need for "a chronic complement to follow". I've seen a number of these cases, including: A fellow in his 50's with episodic disabling cardiac arrhythmias & severe cluster headache Several women presenting with perimenopausal hot flashes A 60 year-old woman with chronic hyperthyroidism, manifesting as acute episodes of anxiety and tachycardia Several round-headed infants with "colic" A man in his 30's presenting with labile hypertension (with good pressures at home, but whose pressures when presenting to the ER for other reasons [migraine episodes] tended result in widespread panic among the ER staff) Several patients with recurrent migraine A woman with severe menstrual cramps & excessively heavy menstrual bleeding A man in his 20's with Crohn's disease, with acute episodes of cramping and bloody diarrhea A Charlie-Brown-headed kid with night terrors A very stubborn kid with severe tantrums, night terrors, and "ADHD" A woman in her 50's with chronic asthma & trichotilomania (hair & eyebrow plucking), both since childhood & I'm sure I could dig up some more. Only after the response to Belladonna has been seen, can it be judged whether these folks need another prescription to follow; and that prescription would be determined by taking the case after the action of the first prescription. Those I mention above have had excellent long-term response to Belladonna, and have not moved into a state asking for another remedy.
(3) [the obverse of #2], An individual who *appears* to have a chronic or acute disharmony of Belladonna character, and who may have even exhibited a partial response to that remedy, may in fact be better served with Calc-c as a simillimum. The most common example of this that I've seen is the child with a dry 102+degree fever & right-sided ear infection, etc., that looks a lot like Belladonna, & may even respond somewhat (e.g. transient drop in fever & pain), but after two or three doses is clearly not responding adequately; but has a very nice response then to Calc-c. On looking these cases over, it is generally the *pace* of Belladonna that was just not quite there; e.g., the fever & ear pain evolved over a day or three rather than appearing unheralded out of an afternoon nap. The cases such as this that I recall were in kids of chronic Calc-c disharmony. Here, unlike the examples in (1) above, the initial Rx of Belladonna was not necessary; the case was Calc-c all along, and any response to Belladonna was basically to a "close-enough-icum". This just highlights again the superficial similarity that can be seen between Belladonna and Calc-c, and the need to discern and attend to the truly characterizing aspects of the case in order to find the simillimum.