• Ailments from grief, misdeeds of others (Staph)
• Smell painfully acute, nausea with faintness from odour of cooking food or thought of cooking, especially fish, eggs, fat meat (Ars, Sep)
• Meteorism. Trapped gas.
• Dreams of mice
• Burning or icy coldness of stomach or abdomen
• Pains are superficial during warm weather; affect the deeper tissues when the air is cold

Source: Vegetable kingdom
Synonyms: Meadow saffron, Tuber root, Upstart
Family: Liliaceae
Prover: Dr Stapf
Duration of Action: 14-20 days
Miasmatic Background: Psora is in the background
Temperament: Rheumatic and melancholic, leucophlegmatic
Diathesis: Rheumatic and gouty
Thermal Relationship: Chilly patient

Introduction and History: The flowers of the plant appear in autumn, the leaves not until the following spring. Colchicum is best known as a remedy in gout and rheumatism and the proving shows its specific relation thereto.

Habit and Habitat: It is found in most parts of Europe, Asia Minor and North America. Flowers bloom from September to October.

Preparation and Parts Used: It is prepared from the tincture of the bulb, dug in spring.

Constitution and Physiognomy: It is adapted to rheumatic and gouty diathesis; persons of robust, vigorous constitution, and to diseases of old people.

Ailments From: From grief, misdeeds of others, night watching, bad effects of suppressed perspiration.

Seat of Action (Pharmacodynamics): Digestive tract, heart, pericardium, kidneys and joints.

Physio-pathological Changes (Pathology)

1. Acts especially upon the cerebospinal centres and terminates in a violent inflammation of a choleric character.
2. Acts upon the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal canal causing all the gastric symptoms.
3. Also affects the kidneys, liver, heart and salivary glands.

Characteristic Mental Symptoms (Psychology)

1. Mind of the patient is beclouded, but answers correctly.
2. There is absence of apprehension, no fear of death.
3. Patient is depressed, irritable and sensitive.
4. Patient can read, but cannot understand a short sentence.
5. External impressions such as bright light, strong odours, contact, misdeeds of others make him quite beside himself.
6. Patient has weak memory.

Characteristic Physical Guiding Symptoms

Nausea: Nausea and faintness from the odour of cooking food, especially fish, eggs or fat meat. Bad effects from night watching.

Aversions: To food especially fish, eggs or fat meat; loathing even the sight or still more, the smell of it.

Abdomen: Distention of abdomen with gas, feeling as if it would burst.

Burning: Burning or icy coldness in stomach and abdomen.

Dysentery: Especially suited to autumnal dysentery; discharges from bowels contain white shreddy particles in large quantities, white mucous, scrapping of intestines.

Urine: Urine is dark, scanty or suppressed in drops, with white sediment, bloody, brown, black; inky contains clots of putrid, decomposed blood, albumin and sugar.

Pains: Pains are drawing, tearing, pressing, light or superficial during warm weather; affects the bones and deeper tissues when air is cold; pains go from left to right.

Arthritis: Arthritic pains in joints; patient screams with pain on touching a joint or Stubbing a toe.

Oversensitiveness: To external impressions like light, noise, strong odours, contact, bad manners; makes him almost beside himself. His sufferings make him almost beside himself, his suffering seems intolerable.

Coldness: Cold surface, tongue and breath; mottled skin and bluish nails.

Weakness: There is sudden sinking of the vital force; if the patient is raised up, the head falls backwards, the mouth opens to its widest extent.

Chest: Dry, hacking cough with burning and feeling of constriction across the chest.

Generative organs: Dropsy of uterus from suppression of menses.

Important Characteristic Features

Arthritis, rheumatism and gout: It is especially suited for arthritic or rheumatic diathesis. It is indicated in pericarditis and rheumatism of small joints. Rheumatic pains frequently change their position; are tearing in nature.

It is specific for gout in which the pulse is slightly irritated; affected parts exceedingly painful, skin looks rose coloured and leaves a white spot under the pressure of a finger.

In warm weather these tearing pains are principally felt on the surface of the body. As the air grows cold, they seem to penetrate the deeper tissues and bones. Worse mental emotion, exhaustion and motion.

General Modalities

Aggravation: Mental emotion or exhaustion, effects of hard study, odour of cooking food, cold damp weather, smell of cooking food, motion, autumn, exertion, night watching and overstudy.

Amelioration: Warmth, lying down quietly.

Remedy Relationships

Follows well: Carb-v, Merc, Nux-v, Puls, Sep, Rhus-t.

Antidotes: Acet-ac, Acon, Cham, Chin, Grat, Merc, Puls, Staph.

Comparison

Cannot bear the sight and smell of food: Ars, Colch, Sep.

Therapeutic Value: Cholera, Cough, Colic, Cramps, Diarrhoea, Dropsy, Dysentery, Fever; Gout, Gastrointestinal disorders, Nausea, Rheumatism, Smell – intolerance of Vomiting, etc.