Materia Medica

Culex musca – Kent

Culex musca
culx

 

When this remedy is needed your patient will present to you a picture of something on fire; he burns like something he would like to mention, and perhaps does mention the place; the itching and burning are present every where in this remedy; he rubs and scratches wherever the eruption appears.

 

The mental symptoms are just what you would expect would follow the physical symptoms of Culex; impatience, a willingness to quarrel, anxiety and fear of death; poor memory and a disinclination for all work; he is so busy scratching to relieve the itching and so busy walking to relieve the restlessness, that any interruption makes him impatient and ready to quarrel.

 

The dull frontal headache begins on waking at five a. m. and passes away after lying awake for a while; during the forenoon there is pain, fullness and pressure in the forehead with heat of the face, getting worse by spells until afternoon when it extends to the outer part of the right orbital ridge and extending through to the occiput is accompanied by nausea which lasts until evening. Some of the head pains go from the cerebellum to the forehead or right temple; the boring pains in the temples come on several times a day: the pain comes and goes across the forehead just above the eyes; a rending pain back of the eyeballs. The headache is made worst by the least motion followed by intense vertigo which comes on in the afternoon and is located in a spot over the right eye. Itching and stinging of the scalp.

 

In the right eye there is a feeling of fullness extending to the parotid gland, from there to the sub lingual and finally involves the right side of the face and head. The margins of the lids are sore and crusted over; the inflammation of the lids is worse in the morning with a discharge of sticky fluid; the eyeballs are inflamed and there is stye-like ulceration. Rending pains in the eyeballs; he could not keep his eyes open yet it pained to keep them shut; the eyes feel tired.

 

The ears come in for their share of trouble with swelling of the parotid glands and soreness on pressure; pain as if he were going to have mumps; sharp pains in both ears followed by watery discharge of the same sticky character that is present in the saliva.

 

From the nose there is a watery discharge with bloody scabs on the inside; small scabs come from the nose which may be dry or moist and bloody; usually mixed with a copious discharge which may be greenish or light colored and the head feels stuffed; the itching, stinging and tickling are always present; he rubs and scratches because his nose itches inside and outside and the more he rubs it the more it burns so he stops for a while until he is driven to rub and scratch again only to be compelled to stop while there is a little skin left on his nose. On top of his nose is a shining redness like a rum blossom; the nose is swollen and the eruption on it contains a clear colorless fluid; as the swelling goes down it is followed by itching and to rub it only increases the desire for more rubbing.

 

There is pain in the posterior nares with green scabs with bleeding after removal of the scabs. Epistaxis morning and night on blowing the nose. The redness is like erysipelas ; shining, red, and sore to touch; it is more marked on the right side in the beginning and then extends to both sides of the nose and to the face. An ineffectual desire to sneeze.

 

Pain over the right malar bone going to the left the next day and here you will see one of the characteristic red spots the size of a twenty-five cent piece feeling as if red pepper had been rubbed in; from the malar bone will be shooting pains to the temple and forehead in the evening, made worse by setting the jaws together. The sub maxillary gland is swollen and tender on pressure. The eruption on the face and between the eyes contains a colorless fluid; there will also be swelling and puffiness under the eyes; in keeping with this remedy we find the heat and redness of the whole right side of the face with a sore bruised feeling.

 

Constant wetting of the lips; a symptom common to many remedies perhaps from nervousness but in this patient it ameliorated the dryness and the ever present burning; the saliva is of such a character that it leaves the lips sticky; this bad tasting whitish saliva leaves a bad taste in the mouth in the morning on waking; a sickish taste as if he had been drinking warm mineral water. The tongue is coated white and is dry, swollen, thick on waking; there is also numbness of the tongue. Periodical attacks of salivation for months; at night the pillow is wet and in the daytime the saliva accumulates and causes continued swallowing. If you prescribe a remedy on one symptom this patient would probably be given Merc. The entire edge of the tongue is covered with a double row of small painful vesicles. This remedy cured a case of numbness of the tongue with ulceration at the tip following scarlet fever.

 

On rising in the morning in addition to the other troubles, he must spend much time hawking up from the pharynx dark green scabs and strings of tough mucus tinged with dark blood and coughing from the trachea green scabs corresponding to the green discharge from the nose.

 

There is burning and dryness of the throat with soreness in throat and in the posterior nares on swallowing solids or fluids. The right side of the throat is always sore.

 

The appetite is increased but the food does not digest; it sours in the stomach; his appetite is quite likely to be ravenous and he must have his dinner on the minute or he feels faint; he is especially hungry and faint in the morning and cannot wait for the breakfast to be prepared; with this sour condition of the stomach you would expect nausea and it is often present day and night; sometimes even the thought of food will bring on nausea with gagging and retching and inability to vomit; with the disordered stomach are sickening pains and eructation of much offensive gas.

 

Thirst for cold water which causes burning in the stomach with urging to stool, followed by loose and dark brown offensive stool, much tenesmus lasting several days and gradually subsiding into painless diarrhoea.

 

On the abdomen are blotches the size of a twenty-five cent piece, itching, burning, with little pimples on the blotches; this is the form of the eruption wherever it is present.

 

A dull pain in the right side in the region of the kidney extending up the back to the occiput.

 

Cramps in the abdomen during stool with rumbling and the passing of much offensive flatus; these colicky pains come on about ten a.m. and last from one to three hours. The usual desire for morning stool is absent; the stool is scanty, lumpy, and expelled with effort; the first part of the stool is hard and scratches the anus; it is followed by a soft stool; after stool he has the sensation that he has not finished so he sits and strains until blood comes. (MERC.)

 

Itching and burning of the anus; it is scalding hot and raw as from a bite; burning of the glans penis and there is a strong smelling discharge from the glans; the itching of the scrotum comes from spots like bee stings; these spots are of the usual circumscribed character that swell and burn and itch; rubbing only aggravates the itching, stinging, burning.

 

The Majora has the same itching, burning that runs all through the remedy. The itching of the vulva is so intense that she feels as if she could tear it to pieces; this symptom returned at intervals for years and was cured by Culex.

 

Menses come too soon with a profuse dark clotted flow; violent pains in the uterus compelling her to go to bed.

 

Hoarseness so that he could scarcely speak a word; usually there is great hoarseness in the morning.

 

Deep sighing breathing with constant desire for a deep breath; the breath is foul and it seemed as if he could smell it himself.

 

A distressing cough caused by burning in the chest; a whistling strangling choking cough with red face and water running from the eyes or it may be a dry hacking cough, present day and night; the cough is mostly in the morning with the feeling as if he would vomit; with the cough there is pain low down in the back; there is coughed up a small amount of yellowish white expectoration; sometimes there is one constant racking cough lasting fifteen minutes ending in a long loud inspiration with blue face and protruding eyes followed by great languor and sweat. There is constant desire to sneeze and cough alternately with a discharge of quantities of mucus from the throat which does not relieve the inclination to cough.

 

In the apex of the right lung there is soreness which is aggravated by deep breathing or raising the right arm, and occasional dull pain in the lower part of the right lung; a painful condition when you consider the desire for deep breathing which is present with oppression and anxiety in the chest; other symptoms give him much trouble; a sensation of fullness in the right lung, soreness on stooping, leaning forward, raising the right shoulder, and with it all there is the sensation of a rubber band around the right lung; not all the pains are dull, there are sudden cutting pains running up and down lasting a minute ; there is rawness, a bruised feeling in the right chest; drawing, clawing pains in the right lung going to the left lung and staying there; these pains lasting several hours each day; with these conditions you would expect soreness on stooping, leaning forward, or raising the right shoulder.

 

Culex Musca has very few heart symptoms which is fortunate considering the many lung symptoms; there are occasional cutting pains that are neither severe nor long lasting; there are pains in the right pectoral muscles and the right side of the neck is swollen.

 

The hands and fingers are hot and burning, as if frozen, with severe pain; the burning of the palms and on the thumb is as if the hand had been rubbed against nettles ; itching, burning, as if he must tear the flesh for relief while the back of the hands felt cold and benumbed.

 

Rose red, colored, burning eruption on the arm aggravated by heat; the arms and hands are numb and prickling; there is the everlasting itching that is present all through this remedy; the eruption with its colorful fluid, burning after scratching and with it the desire to tear the skin off. There is coldness of the right hand while the left hand is warm.

 

The lower limbs feel heavy with an uneasy restlessness that is made better by the open air; his feet are tired all day long yet he must drag himself into the open air for relief; he wishes that he knew some place Where he could put his poor, tired, heavy limbs that would give him rest. On the thigh there is the blotch the size of a twenty-five cent piece, with little pimples on it, that itches and burns like a flea bite. There is aching of the legs from the knee down; there is no position that will make the pain less so he must get up out of his chair and take a walk in the open air; there is little comfort to his feet while walking as the soles are tender and there is intense itching on the tops of the feet.

 

Of course his sleep is restless with much tossing about in sleep; the heat of the bed causes him to waken frequently ; he must rise early in the morning to move around for relief; he is unrefreshed by sleep which has been restless, and full of dreams of quarrels, fights, and of the dead.

 

There are hot flushes as if a chill would follow, followed by warm perspiration which is strong smelling and sticky; this stickiness is also noticed in the saliva.

 

His skin torments him almost beyond endurance, itching, burning, heat, all combine to make him miserable; the skin feels better while scratching but worse after scratching; there is no comfort at home or abroad, in bed or out of it and a place of amusement is not to be thought of; he scratches which makes more trouble yet he must scratch to relieve that terrible, constant itching; you may truthfully say that this remedy has many outward manifestations.

 

This may be summed up as a right sided remedy with the strange feeling of having been poisoned; there are sharp stinging pains all over the body like needles; lightning like; darting here and there, aggravated by light pressure and ameliorated by hard pressure.

 

Head, nose, and limb symptoms seem to grow worse until seven p. m. and are ameliorated about eight p. m.; in an hour or two they are gone; the symptoms seem most severe from six to seven p. m.

 

All symptoms, pain, itching, burning, are worse in a warm room and better in the open air, although he is so tired and weak that he can scarcely move, cannot walk straight, with soreness and aching all over the body, yet he is so nervous that he finds it impossible to keep still; there is almost constant motion of the hands and feet.