CANTHARIS VESICATORIA

Cantharis Vesicatoria (Spanish Fly)

This potent drug causes severe disturbances in the body, primarily affecting the urinary and sexual organs, leading to inflammation and intense delirium similar to hydrophobia. It can trigger puerperal convulsions and violent inflammation throughout the gastrointestinal tract, especially the lower bowel. Symptoms include hypersensitivity, irritation, raw burning pains, hemorrhages, and a constant, urgent need to urinate. Gastric, hepatic, and abdominal issues worsen with coffee consumption. It also increases mucus secretion, and the inflammations it causes (in bladder, kidneys, ovaries, meninges, pleuritic and pericardial membranes) are linked with bladder irritation.

Mind: Intense delirium, anxious restlessness ending in rage, crying, barking, and attempts to do things without success. Acute sexual mania, amorous frenzy, fiery sexual desire, paroxysms of rage, and sudden loss of consciousness with a red face.

Head: Burning sensation in the brain, vertigo, worse in open air.

Eyes: Yellow vision, fiery, sparkling, staring look, and burning sensation.

Ears: Sensation of wind or hot air from the ear, with painful bones around the ear.

Face: Pale, death-like appearance with itching vesicles that burn when touched, erysipelas with burning and biting heat, hot and red.

Throat: Tongue covered with vesicles, deeply furred, edges red, burning in the mouth, pharynx, and throat with vesicles, great difficulty swallowing liquids, tenacious mucus, violent spasms on touching the larynx, and inflammation as if on fire.

Stomach: Burning sensation in the esophagus and stomach, disgust for food, drink, and tobacco, burning thirst with aversion to fluids, violent burning, vomiting blood-streaked membrane, pain aggravated by coffee.

Stool: Shivering with burning, dysentery with mucoid stools like intestinal scrapings, bloody stools with burning and tenesmus, shuddering after stool.

Urinary: Intolerable urging and tenesmus, nephritis with hematuria, violent paroxysms with cutting and burning in the renal region, bloody urine, intolerable tenesmus with cutting pain, urine scalds and is passed drop by drop, constant desire to urinate, membranous scales in urine, urine jelly-like and shreddy.

Male: Strong desire, painful erections, pain in glans, priapism in gonorrhea.

Female: Retained placenta with dysuria, expels moles and dead fetuses, nymphomania, puerperal metritis with cystitis, early and profuse menses, black swollen vulva with irritation, constant uterine discharge, burning ovarian pain, sensitive ovaries, pain in os coccyx.

Respiratory: Pleurisy with effusion, intense dyspnea, palpitations, dry cough, tendency to syncope, short hacking cough, blood-streaked mucus, burning pains, weak voice.

Heart: Palpitations, weak and irregular pulse, tendency to syncope, pericarditis with effusion.

Back: Pain in the loins with an incessant desire to urinate.

Extremities: Tearing pain in limbs, ulcerative pain in soles, cannot step.

Fever: Cold hands and feet, cold sweat, burning soles, chill as if water was poured over him.

Skin: Dermatitis with bleb formation, secondary eczema around genitals, gangrene tendency, mealy scales, vesicular eruptions with burning and itching, sunburn, burns and scalds relieved by cold applications, erysipelas of vesicular type with restlessness, burning feet soles at night.

Modalities: Worse from touch, micturating, drinking cold water or coffee; better with rubbing.

Relationship: Antidotes include Acon., Camph., Puls. Compare with Cantharidinum, Versicaria communis, Fuschinum, Androsace lactea, Apis, Ars., Merc-c. Complementary: Camph.

Dose: Sixth to thirtieth potency, bears repeated doses well. Locally, use in burns and eczema with 1x and 2x in water, or as cerate.