# Verbascum Thapsus ## Remedy Classification - **Type:** Herbal Remedy - **Miasm:** Tubercular Miasm - **Temperament:** Chilly - **Aggravation Time:** Morning ## Keynote Indications Verb, has a pronounced action on the inferior maxillary branch of the fifth pair of the cranial nerves, on the ear and respiratory tract and bladder. Catarrhs and colds with periodical prosopalgia, spasmodic effects, neuralgias. Nervous and bronchial coughs. Urinary irritation. Tearing, stitching, cramping squeezing, crushing, paralyzi ng pains. Intermittent pains. ## Modalities (Aggravations / Ameliorations) Better from taking deep in spirations. Worse touch, pressure. Worse cold, drafts, change of temperature. Worse from stooping, walking, talking. Worse sneezing, biting hard (inferior dental nerve). Worse 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., twice a day, at same hour. ## Symptoms by System ### Vertigo - Vertigo when pressing one cheek while supporting the head. - Vertigo sudden, as from pres sure on whole head. - COMMENTS - Mullein oil is used, locally, for earache and dry, scaly condition of me atus. - Also for teasing cough at night or lying down. - Bedwetting, five-drop doses night and morning Cushing introduced this now rather well - known remedy to the medical profession in 1884. - He wrote “My father’s house was the home for all poor tramps, as well as ministers, etc. - He fell into the river, got water in his ears and was quite deaf for months. - “A blind man had called, heard loud conversation, aske d the cause, etc., then said for kindness received he would tell us how Verbascum thapsus to make something that would surely cure him and it was worth a thousand dollars in New York City. - “We made the oil, put it in his ears at night and he was well in the morning. - For years we kept a bottle of it and it traveled all around the towns and did wonders. - That was when I was a youngster.” Hering, in “Hearing and Ears,” noticed “In Germany flowers of Verbascum thapsus put in a dark-colored bottle, hung up in the sunlight, give in two or three weeks an oily fluid which has cured many old people and children.” Hahnemann proved Verb, and his proving confirmed many of the old uses. - It produced neuralgic pains of very great intensity, pressing and sharp and especially in the facial bones, navel and limbs and a peculiar cough. - Chronic dermatitis of the external meatus and drumhead or exfoliation after furuncle. - Catarrhal inflammation of the tympanum Suppurative disease of the tympanum. - Ac cumulations of debris in the c ase of perfora tion, scarred eardrum. - Chronic inflammation of the eyes. - Chilblains. - Burns. - Nash described a “Cough, deep, hollow, hoarse in sound like a trumpet.” He cured many cases and always used it low. - It is more especially a night cough. - It occurs in children during their sleep. - Mullein was used as a popular specific for tuberculosis, the leaves being boiled in milk, which was then strained and given warm. - W. - B. - McCoy gave several illustrations. - According to him Verb, (i.e., the “oil”) has a “soothing effect on the entire nervous system in many cases acting as a soporific.” In summer diarrhea he gave one to four drops in two ounces of warm water, a teaspoonful every hour. - In bedwetting or dribbling of urine one-drop doses in warm water three or four times a day. - Among his cases were those of two boys who had become deaf from getting water in their ears when swimming. - They were cured by having three drops of the oil instilled “in each ear alternately night and morning.” O. - S. - Laws cured a youth of 16 of bed-wetting with fifteen drops of the oils three times a day. - The oil plainly acts on the indications of the proving and may be regarded as an al ternative preparation to the official tincture. - It might be called Verbasci oleum. - Mr. - Kemmis spent a large amount of money treating with various physicians for what they pronounced a rose cancer and without any relief. - An Indian woman told him to use mullein oil. - He distilled it (by sun exposure) and for a short time bathed the cancer with the oil. - The growth of cancer was permanently checked, but it was not healed. - Mr. - K. - lived, perhaps, forty years after the treatment was used and the cancer never again bothered him. ### Eyes - Pains in eyes, as from contraction of the sockets with burning in eyes. - Sight confused, as if directed through a veil. ### Ears - Earache. - Numbness in left ear. - Otal gia with a sense of obstruction. - Deafness from getting water in, as in swimming or as if stopped by a valve. - Dry, scaly condition of meatus (locally). ### Face - Neuralgia affecting zygoma, temporo -maxillary joint and ear (Meny.), particularly of left side with lachrymation, coryza and sensation as if parts were crushed with tongs. - Talking, sneezing and change of temperature aggravate the pains, also, pressing teeth together. - Pains seem to come in flashes, excited by least movement, occurring periodically at same hour in morning and afternoon each day. ### Mouth - Copious accumulation of salty saliva in the mouth. - Root of tongue brown. - Tongue of abrownish yellow color, loaded with viscid mucus in morning and after dinner. - Nose - Profuse coryza from frontal sinuses with hot, burning, profuse lachryma tion. - Sensation of stoppage of larynx and ears. ### Throat - Very severe pain in throat on swal lowing. - Hoarseness, voice deep, harsh, sounds like a trumpet, “bassoprofundo.’’ Sensation of obstruction in the larynx. ### Chest - Shooting in chest, sometimes with oppression and obstructed respiration. - Stitch :s in the chest. - Red nodosity near xiphoid cartilage, painful when pressed upon. - Asthma. - Catarrh with hoarseness and stuffed chest. - Frequent attacks of deep, hollow cough with sound like a trumpet , better deep breathing. - Soreness in pharynx, cough during sleep. - Dry, hoarse cough worse at night. - Cough, nervous without waking. ### Stomach & Abdomen - Aching of stomach. - Sensation of emptiness at pit of stomach, which disappears with a rumbling below left ribs. - Frequent hiccough. - Regurgitation of insipid serum. - Empty or else bitter risings with nausea. - Temperature - Internal coldness of whole body of hands and feet, perceptible also externally. - Shuddering, especially on one side of body, as if it were bathed in cold water. - As of a lump or twisting around navel. - Incessant gurgling and rumbling beneath left ribs. - Inflation of the abdomen, violent and painful pressure on navel. - Pinchings and gripings in abdomen. - Mawkish taste with fetid breath. - Hunger without relish for food. - Insatiable thirst. - Kidneys - Increased urine with pressure in bladder. - Burning urination. - Constant dribbling. - Bedwetting, at night, worse coughing. ### Urinary & Genital - Pollutions without lewd dreams. ### Extremities - Stitching in the limbs. - Stiffness and soreness ofjoints of lower limbs. - Lower limbs feel heavy. - Cramp-like pain in soles, right foot and knee. - Neuralgic pain in left ankle. - Thumb feels numb. ### Neck & Back - Lancinations in the back and shoulder blades. - Sharp intermittent stitches in left scapula. - Backache worse from pressure. ### Sleep - Strong disposition to sleep after a meal. - Disturbed sleep, at night with tossing. - Short sleep at night, lasting only until 4 a.m. - with anxious, frightful dreams of wars and dead bodies. ### Generalities - As if everything would press out at forehead. - As if temples were pinched and crushed. - As if ears were stopped up. - As if something had fallen before ear. - As if left ramus of jaw were pressed against upper jaw. - As if nose and larynx were stopped up. - As if intestines were adherent to wall of abdomen and were being torn away. - As of a twist around navel. - As if cold water were poured over side of body from shoulder to thigh.