Rumex, the yellow
dock, is a neglected remedy, and one that has been only partially proved.
The mental symptoms have not been brought out, but the catarrhal symptoms
have been well expressed by provers.
There is a state of sadness, low spirited; aversion to work; irritable
mental excitability. This includes about all the mental state we know of this remedy, as the
provings were made with the lower potencies and tincture.
The yellow dock has been used in domestic practice, as a blood medicine,
to cure eruptions and boils. When used in this way it is a mild substance, and hence the
provings are somewhat in this form.
The catarrhal tendency is very striking. The nose, eyes, chest and
trachea, the whole respiratory tract, gives forth a copious flow, copious mucous discharge.
I have seen it so copious from the nose that it seemed as one continuous flow; so copious
from the trachea and bronchial tubes that the patient continually hawked up, by the
mouthful, thin frothy, white mucus, so that in a little while as much as half a pint of thin
mucus, as thin as water, would be in the cuspidor. It also has marked dryness of the larynx
and trachea with hard, dry, spasmodic cough.
At times it has taken the form of grippe, with a copious mucous
discharge; thin, watery, frothy expectoration by the mouthful. This is only the first stage.
Following this the discharge becomes thick, yellow, tough or thick, white and tenacious; so
ropy and stringy and tough that in spite of blowing the nose and coughing he fails to get it
up. Completely exhausted from his efforts to expectorate the tough, stringy, tenacious even
gluey mucus. This catarrhal state is commonly accompanied by a morning diarrhea, and these
constitute the leading features.
"Catarrhal headache with great irritation of the larynx and trachea,
clavicular pain and soreness behind sternum."
Catarrhal headaches are headaches that come on during spells of dryness,
alternating with a copious flux. Extreme rawness in the larynx and trachea; burning and
smarting; unable to endure pressure on the throat pit.
Tickling in the throat pit causing cough. Must sit
without motion; cannot breathe deeply, hurriedly or irregularly because the burning is so
much increased by any change in breathing.
If he steps into the open air a paroxysmal cough takes his breath away;
or if he passes from the open air into a warm room the same paroxysmal cough comes on. The
paroxysm is so violent that in the morning, when he has a loose stool, he will pass it
involuntarily with the cough. The urine also passes away with the cough. The headache
returns when the discharges slack up.
A striking feature is pain under the clavicle; a sense of rawness under
the clavicle; as if the parts inside were raw; as if the air came directly under the
clavicle, producing rawness and burning. Rawness and burning from the inhalation of air.
"Nose obstructed; dry sensation even in posterior nares."
Many times the coryza starts out by a marked dryness in the posterior
nares, so that he is constantly hawking; the irritation is so great that he cannot let it
alone. There is a sensation of thickening in the nasopharynx, and he produces a peculiar
noise in trying to get rid of it.
"Sudden sharp tingling sensation in Schneiderian membrane."
This is intense; tingling, sometimes described as an itching extending
from the end of the nose to the pharynx; sometimes forces sneezing, blowing the nose and
this peculiar noise, and sometimes a hawking to get the mucus when it isi a little lower in
the pharynx; hemming to get rid of it when in the larynx. The inflammation passes to the
smallest bronchi, producing a capillary bronchitis and finally a pneumonia.
It suits acute and chronic catarrhal states. In old phthisical cases
every time be takes a cold, he is so sensitive to cold air and change of air that he sleeps
with the bed clothes over his mouth. Every breath of air causes a spasmodic cough.
The early expectoration is thin mucus, and then it becomes thicker and
tenacious, and he cannot expectorate it; he hears the rattle, after many efforts which
exhaust him; he expectorates a little with hardly any relief. This is a great remedy to do
patch work with in phthisis. Soreness, rawness and burning, especially down the trachea and
tinder the sternum.
"Violent sneezing, with fluent coryza, worse in the evening and at
night."
Many symptoms are worse in the evening.
"Coryza, fluent, with sneezing, with headache, worse evening and
night."
Some symptoms are worse in the early morning. Certain kinds of cough are
worse at 11 P.M. Lachesisand Rumex furnish a puzzle in this cough and each has to be
understood.
In Lachesisyoung children cough in their early sleep, but if kept awake they will not
cough. Therefore in Lachesisthe 11 P.M. cough is an aggravation from sleep. In Rumex the cough will come on at 11 o'clock whether the child is asleep or not.
"Accumulation of mucus in posterior nares."
"Yellow mucous discharge through posterior nares."
"Epistaxis, violent sneezing and painful irritation of
nostrils."
"Influenza with violent catarrh, followed by bronchitis."
"Scraping in the throat;" whenever this catarrhal state goes into the larynx and trachea, there is
this continual scraping in the throat.
Hoarse; cannot speak because the vocal cords are covered with tough
mucus. Chronic cases have often been cured.
Phosphorushas this hoarseness, but especially aphonia relieved
by hemming up a little mucus from the vocal cords. The Causticumhoarseness is due to a weakness of the vocal cords. Phosphorushas an inflammatory
state and the continual accumulation of mucus impedes speech. Rumex has the
accumulation of tough, gelatinous, gluey mucus, and he continually scrapes the larynx.
"Sensation of a lump in the throat, not relieved by hawking or
swallowing, it descends on deglutition, but immediately returns"; this is also a strong
feature in Lachesis.
"Aching in the pharynx, with collection of tough mucus in the
fauces."
"Catarrhal affections of throat and fauces."
This remedy shows the various stages of severe cold, but is especially
indicated in constitutions that are constantly taking cold worse from change of the weather;
always shivering about the fire want much clothing, want even the head covered up.
Many complaints are worse in the evening, from a bath, from becoming
cold, from inhaling cold air. Rheumatic complaints are common and are aggravated by cold.
Every cold seems to affect the joints. This is a marked feature of Calcarea phos .; every change to
cold is felt in the joints; from bathing and getting chilled afterwards.
"Tight, suffocative, heavy ache in epigastrium, through to back
clothes seem too tight; weak feeling in epigastrium, all aggravated when talking; frequently
takes a long breath."
"Shooting from pit of stomach to chest; sharp pain in left chest;
slight nausea; dull aching in forehead."
"Aching and shooting in pit of stomach and above it on each side of
sternum."
