Sepia Homeopathic Remedy

HOMEOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA
by William BOERICKE, M.D.

SEPIA OFFICINALIS
Inky Juice of Cuttlefish
(SEPIA)

Acts especially on the portal system, with venous congestion. Stasis and thereby ptosis of viscera and weariness and misery. Weakness, yellow complexion, bearing-down sensation, especially in women, upon whose organism it has a most pronounced effect. Pains extend down to the back, chills easily. The tendency to abortion. Hot flashes at menopause with weakness and perspiration. The upward tendency of its symptoms. Easy fainting. “Ball” sensation in inner parts. Sepia acts best on brunettes. All pains are from below up. One of the most important uterine remedies. Tubercular patients with chronic hepatic troubles and uterine reflexes. Feels cold even in a warm room. Pulsating headache in the cerebellum.

Mind.–Indifferent to those loved best. Averse to the occupation, to family. Irritable; easily offended. Dreads to be alone. Very sad. Weeps when telling symptoms. Miserly. Anxious toward evening; indolent.

Head.–Vertigo, with the sensation of something rolling round in the head. Prodromal symptoms of apoplexy. Stinging pain from within outward and upward mostly left, or in the forehead, with nausea, vomiting; worse indoors, and when lying on painful side. Jerking of the head backward and forwards. The coldness of vertex. Headache in terrible shocks at menstrual nisus, with scanty flow. Hair falls out. Open fontanelles. Roots of hair sensitive. Pimples on forehead near hair.

Nose.–Thick, greenish discharge; thick plugs and crusts. Yellowish saddle across the nose. Atrophic catarrh with greenish crusts from anterior nose and pain at root of nose. Chronic nasal catarrh, especially post-nasal, dropping of heavy, lumpy discharges; must be hawked through the mouth.

Eyes.–Muscular asthenopia; black spots in the field of vision; asthenic inflammations, and in connection with uterine trouble. Aggravation of eye troubles morning and evening. Tarsal tumors. Ptosis, ciliary irritation. Venous congestion of the fundus.

Ears.–Herpes behind ears on the nape of the neck. Pain as if from sub-cutaneous ulceration. Swelling and eruption of the external ear.

Face.–Yellow blotches; pale or sallow; yellow about the mouth. Rosacea; saddle-like brownish distribution on nose and cheeks.

Mouth.–Tongue white. Taste salty, putrid. Tongue foul, but clears during menses. Swelling and cracking of lower lip. Pain in teeth from 6 pm till midnight; worse on lying.

Stomach.–Feeling of goneness; not relieved by eating (Carb an). Nausea at smell or sight of food. Nausea worse lying on the side. Tobacco dyspepsia. Everything tastes too salty (Carbo beg; Chin). Band of pain about four inches wide encircling hypochondria. Nausea in the morning before eating. Disposition to vomit after eating. Burning in the pit of the stomach. Longing for vinegar, acids, and pickles. Worse, after milk, especially when boiled. Acid dyspepsia with the bloated abdomen, sour eructations. Loathes fat.

Abdomen.–Flatulent, with a headache. Liver sore and painful; relieved by lying on the right side. Many brown spots on the abdomen. Feeling of relaxation and bearing-down in the abdomen.

Rectum.–Bleeding at stool and fullness of rectum. Constipation; large, hard stools; feeling of a ball in the rectum, cannot strain; with great tenesmus and pains shooting upward. Dark-brown, round balls glued together with mucus. Soft stool, difficult. Prolapsus ani (Pod). Almost constant oozing from the anus. Infantile diarrhœa, worse from boiled milk, and rapid exhaustion. Pains shoot up in rectum and vagina.

Urinary.–Red, adhesive, sand in urine. Involuntary urination, during first sleep. Chronic cystitis, slow micturition, with bearing-down sensation above the pubis.

Male.–Organs cold. Offensive perspiration. Gleet; discharge from urethra only during the night; no pain. Condylomata surround the head of the penis. Complaints from coition.

Female.–Pelvic organs relaxed. Bearing-down sensation as if everything would escape through vulva (Bell; Kreoso; Lac c; Lil t; Nat c; Pod); must cross limbs to prevent protrusion, or press against vulva. Leucorrhœa yellow, greenish; with much itching. Menses Too late and scanty, irregular; early and profuse; sharp clutching pains. Violent stitches upward in the vagina, from the uterus to umbilicus. Prolapse of uterus and vagina. Morning sickness. Vagina painful, especially on coition.

Respiratory.–Dry, fatiguing cough, apparently coming from the stomach. Rotten-egg taste with coughing. Oppression of chest morning and evening. Dyspnœa; worse, after sleep; better, rapid motion. Cough in the morning, with profuse expectoration, tasting salty (Phos; Ambr). Hypostatic pleuritis. Whooping-cough that drags on. Cough excited by tickling in larynx or chest.

Heart.–Violent, intermittent palpitation. Beating in all arteries. Tremulous feeling with flushes.

Back.–Weakness in small of the back. Pains extend into the back. Coldness between shoulders.

Extremities.–Lower extremities lame and stiff, tension as if too short. Heaviness and bruised feeling. Restlessness in all limbs, twitching, and jerkings night and day. Pain in the heel. The coldness of legs and feet.

Fever.–Frequent flushes of heat; sweat from least motion. General lack of warmth of the body. Feet cold and wet. Shivering, with thirst; worse, towards evening.

Skin.–Herpes circinatus in isolated spots. Itching; not relieved by scratching; worse in bends of elbows and knees. Chloasma; herpetic eruption on lips, about mouth and nose. Ringworm-like eruption every spring. Urticaria on going in the open air; better in a warm room. Hyperidrosis and bromidrosis. Sweat on feet, worse on toes; intolerable odor. Lentigo in young women. Ichthyosis with offensive odor of skin.

Modalities.–Worse, forenoons and evenings; washing, laundry-work, dampness, left side, after sweat; cold air, before thunder-storm. Better, by exercise, pressure, warmth of bed, hot applications, drawing limbs up, cold bathing, after sleep.