Materia Medica de A a Z

COLLINSONIA CANADENSIS (coll)

"I do not propose to adopt the usual way by beginning with /Aconite/ and ending with /Zincum/, but to follow the bent of my inclinations, or, as it is sometimes expressed, the movings of the spirit; and may I not here invoke the aid of the spirits of the immortal Hahnemann, Boenninghausen and the galaxy of bright names that adorn the fair page of the history of Homoeopathy to help me."

First: NUX VOMICA (nux-v)

Previus: RHEUM (Rheum)

Next: CORALLIUM RUBRUM (Cor-r)

This remedy has not been thoroughly proven, but enough has been learned from what we have, and clinical experience, to indicate that it is a very valuable one. As a remedy for hæmorrhoids or rectal trouble it may be compared with Æsculus hippocastanum (Aesc), for both have a sensation as if the rectum was filled with sticks. From this one symptom we could not know which one to prescribe. But let us note some of the differences:

Æsculus (Aesc) has also a prominent sense of fullness in rectum, Collinsonia has not.

Æsculus (Aesc) piles do not, as a rule, bleed.

Collinsonia piles often bleed persistently.

Æsculus (Aesc) has great pain, soreness and aching in the back.

Collinsonia does not as yet develop that symptom.

Æsculus (Aesc)sometimes has constipation, sometimes not.

Collinsonia is greatly constipated, with colic on account of it.

This comparison is carried far enough to show that a choice between these remedies is not generally difficult. With Collinsonia I once cured a very severe colic which had been of frequent occurrence in a lady for several years and had completely baffled the old school efforts to cure. I was led to choose the remedy on account of the obstinate constipation, the great flatulence and the hæmorrhoidal condition present.

I also cured one of the most obstinate cases of chronic constipation I ever met. The patient for two years had only averaged a movement of the bowels once in two weeks, and then only under the action of powerful cathartics, after which he would be almost sick two or three days in bed. Collinsonia cured him within a month so perfectly that his bowels moved naturally every day and the trouble never returned so long as I knew him, for years afterwards.