CEDRON Rattle Snake Bean.
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1994 Sep / Oct Vol III No 5.
Sangeeta Kawad.
Materia Medica.
` Cedr.
Sima Ruba Ferrogine

When we think of Cedron, the first symptom that comes to mind is that it is a remedy for intermittent fever. Yet, there are a host of other symptoms in this drug which go to make the totality of Cedron.

1. GENERALS:
   1. Periodicity - is the grand characteristic of Cedron. Be it in intermittent fevers or in neuralgias or in any other disease - Clock-like periodicity the symptom recurs at the same hour each day or every alternate day.
   2. Most Complaints are left sided.
      However the right side of the face, head and elbow may also be affected.
   3. Worse after coition. Whether chorea in women, neuralgia in men, stammering speech or nervous depression - all are worse after coition.
      I remember tic like pain in the left eye of a 13 year duration cured by Cedron - as it came on only after coitus.
   4. Rapidity of Action - (Like Belladonna)
      
      There is strong sexual excitement in both sexes, not relieved by coition.
      Irregular and uncontrollable movements of left upper and lower extremities and face with grimaces and contractions lasting for 15-20 minutes. There may also be stammering, difficult respiration and involuntary discharge of urine and feces found in females who have choreic attack.
      
      Males suffer from pain over left eye (supra orbital neuralgias).
   5. Adapted mainly to females of a voluptuous and excitable nervous temperament.
   6. Epilepsy - is a predominant pathological general. Epilepsy during menses. Eclampsia is also common.
   7. Catamenia - symptoms evolve during catamenia. Epileptic convulsions with bleeding gums, a fetid breath, difficulty in speaking as if the tongue is paralyzed. There may also be a sensation of heat or painful pricking of the tongue. The mouth and tongue become dry during catamenia.
      
      Later, there is profuse ptyalism. The face becomes pale with deep sunken eyes. Lips are cold, blue, dry, odontalgia every night. Bleeding gums. Leucorrhoea before and after menses.
      
      Generalized swollen sensation. Numbness of the whole body. Malaise and sensations as if paralyzed. Associated with many complaints.
   8. Mentals - All mental symptoms are aggravated at night. lectrophobia. Body seems heavy and mind depressed. Nervous excitement initially; always followed by depression. He becomes so restless that it drives him from place to place.
   9. Fevers
      Cedron is invaluable in intermittent fevers and neuralgias. It is indicated in tropical fevers occurring in low marshy regions, warm seasons and in tropical countries.
      
      Chill - Chill at 4 a.m. or 4 p.m. followed by sweat. Chills with shivering followed by profuse perspiration. Chill with congestion of blood to the head but hands and feet icy cold. Regular paroxysm of fever everyday at 6 p.m. with chills in the back.
      
      Heat - In the heat stage, there is dryness, congestion of head and redness of face. Burning heat in hands. Pulse full bound and accelerated. There is thirst for warm drinks.
      
      Perspiration - Profuse. Heat and coldness intermingle at this stage. In children the face becomes blue with coldness in forearms to elbow. There is sweating of axilla and chest.
      
      Whatever the type of fever - quotidian or tertian - it has clock like periodicity. The great debility due to its action on the brain and CNS unlike cinchona where the profuse perspiration causes debility. The febrile paroxysm is always associated with violent cerebral symptoms which causes debility.
   10. Neuralgias - Left sided, supra orbital, aggravated lying down and evening.
       Prosopalgias more frequent in women that men, generally on right side. It recurs in regular paroxysms of indefinite durations with spasmodic distortion of the muscles, aggravated at 7 or 8 p.m. and lasting for 2-4 hours.
       
       Epileptiform Eclampsias - in the 7th month. Attacks with clock like periodicity. Twice a day - morning or evening - at the same hour. Intense pain in forehead and giddiness with a most distressing convulsion. There is inability to close the mouth with frothy secretions and difficult respiration. The episode lasts for 6-8 minutes and recovery heralded by a profuse crystal clear urine.
2. PARTICULARS:
   
   EYE:
   Objects seem red at night and yellow by daytime. Eyes are unsteady and glisten. Intolerance to light. Periodic ciliary neuralgias. A tic like pain in the left eye only after coitus. Pain across eyes from the temple to temple. Indicated in iritis, choroiditis, glaucoma. Neuralgic affections of eyes aggravated in evening when lying down.
   
   HEAD:
   Shooting, pressing, throbbing pains. Pain goes deep into orbits compelling him to shut the eyes. The pains extend to the occiput. intense pain in the forehead from temple to temple, across the eyes. A sick headache which recurs at 11 a.m. every other day. Head feels swollen. Headache aggravated in open air, on rising, at night and before a storm.
   
   HEARING AND EARS:
   Deafness with tinnitus worse at night and in intermittent fever.
   
   NOSE:
   Cold tip of the nose with chilliness. Yawning at 9 p.m.
   
   TEETH AND GUMS:
   Toothache - sudden, in left upper molars on inspiration. Sensation as if cold touched the teeth.
   
   THROAT:
   Pain spotty in left side of the throat, at root of tongue. Redness of palate, constantly wants to swallow.
   
   GIT:
   White frothy papescent stools with colic, wind and suffocative fits, aggravated meal.
   Faeces - semi-liquid, white, like starch. Involuntary discharge of faeces in chorea. Excessive tenesmus.
   
   VOICE AND LARYNX:
   Feeling of suffocation in throat. Chronic intermittent laryngitis attacks every evening with shivering chills followed by profuse perspiration.
   
   RESPIRATION:
   Hurried respiration. Feels suffocated in throat regularly at 10-12 Oclock. Choking dyspnoea, must stand erect. Tonsillar symptoms during the attack worse after sleep and better by eating. Cold breath. All symptoms worse after coition.
   
   CVS:
   Irregular action of the heart. Irregular pulse in epileptic attacks of catamenia. Pregnancy. Rapid pulse in fevers. So rapid and intermittent that it is impossible to count it.
   An important remedy for Cerebro-spinal meningitis with stiffness of neck.
   
   UPPER LIMBS:
   Pain at the insertion of the right deltoid. Rheumatic right side.
3. GENERAL AGGRAVATION AND AMELIORATION:
   Aggravated - sleep, lying down, night, open air, before a storm, tropical climates, after coitus.
   Ameliorated - standing erect
   Petroz and Teste introduced. Cedron to homoeopathy due to its power to antidote snake bites when given in crude forms. This dictated its use in treating snake bites, insect bites. It also helps modify hydrophobia.
4. CLINICAL USES:
   Used for Malaria, Cerebro Spinal meningitis, Ciliary neuralgias, Chorea, complaints after coitus. Epilepsy, Menstrual troubles. Hydrophobia, Hysteria, Intermittent fevers, Neuralgias, Neuritis, Rheumatism, Snake bites, Tooth aches.

Dr. SANGEETA B. KAWAD - BHMS
HYDERABAD - 29.

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