Musca domestica: A proving of house fly
by Susan Sonz, CCH and Robert Stewart, CCH
Summary of Musca domestica
"If thought is life
and strength and breath
and the want
Of thought is death
Then am I
A little fly
If I live
Or if I die."
William Blake
The common house fly is ubiquitous. Wherever you find human
habitation, you will hear its infernal buzz. It is as close to humanity as is
the mammal. It is therefore surprising that it has never been proven before.
During the last century, an ambitious homeopath proved a parasite of the fly
(Trombidium), but until now no one has thought to prove the host.
Insects are a strange world. Voiceless and fully armored,
they don't really have limbs as much as they have tools -- an assortment of
saws and scissors, hammers and hooks. It is an awkwardly-jointed, segmented
world where a mother may as dispassionately eat its young as it may eat its
mate. It is a world that comprises over three-quarters of the total animal
world. As the great naturalist, Maurice Maeterlinck, whose work on the ant is a
classic, put it: "Something in the insect seems to be alien to the habits,
morals and psychology of this world, as if it had come from some other planet,
more monstrous, more energetic, more insensate, more atrocious, more infernal
than our own."
Musca domestica belongs to the family, muscoidea, the order,
diptera, the class, insecta and the phylum, arthropoda. In the homeopathic
materia medica, the chordates are represented by the milks mostly. There is a
large grouping of arthropoda represented by the spiders. From the order,
coleoptera, we have the important remedy, Cantharis. There is only one other
member of the fly family in the materia medica, the mosquito (Culex), whose
name is actually an illiteration of muscoidea.
The common fly is incredibly prolific. In one season,
beginning in April, one fly may produce more offspring than the entire human
population by a factor of four. Luckily, the fly is a great food for many other
insects. This is especially true for the spider, its most natural enemy. There
is even a traditional poem to that effect.
The fly, like all members of the class, insecta, and unlike
the vertebrates (the chordates), has no internal skeletal system but is encased
in an external support, called the exoskeleton. The so called wings are not
real limbs like in the bird but are a kind of skin growing out of the thorax
that vibrates to produce flight. The wings have to be continually cared for or
they become unusable.
The head is dominated by two large eyes composed of hundreds
of hexagonal lens each which permit 360 degrees of fractured vision. Between
these complex eyes are three smaller eyes.
All members of the muscoidea family, like the butterfly, a distant cousin, go
through complete metamorphosis. While most insects merely increase in size,
periodically shedding their exoskeleton, flies, butterflies and moths become
totally and magically transformed from one stage to the next: egg --
maggot/caterpillar -- pupa/chrysalis -- fly/butterfly. The butterfly has been
called, for this reason, an apt symbol for the soul at death. The common house
fly, however, has never shared in that distinction.
The fly has very unique feeding habits. For one thing, it is
capable of tasting with its legs as it walks over the surface of potential
food. On the other hand, it has no real mouth, no chewing apparatus, and is,
therefore, unable to digest solid food. It drinks its food. It extends a long,
soft proboscis which emits a saliva that literally dissolves the material and
the fly then sucks it up like a straw. Favorite sources for food material are
garbage dumps, trash cans, fecal matter, unprotected cooked vegetables and
meats, and spoiled and rancid food in general. Flies don't discriminate. They
are often thus vectors for disease.
(Note: Interestingly, we did not have the digestive issues
in the proving that we expected. We assume this is because the fly that was
potentized had just been hatched and had not eaten yet.)
Science made great strides when it overcame an
anthropomorphic interpretation of the natural world. The same must be extended
now to homeopathy. Neither nature nor our patients are served by a facile
"zoo-pomorphic" clinical judgment. Because she is endlessly busy, is
given to a sarcasm that stings and has a regal bearing is no justification for
a prescription of Apis mellifica. We must always collaborate intuition with
reliable symptomology from the provings. There are, however, a few
characteristics of the life habits of the fly that have been confirmed by the
proving and by (a limited) clinical experience.
1) Unlike most insects, which seem to exist in a milieu of
dry warmth and air, flies have a connection to the wet and the earthly.
Wherever you will find animal moisture, you will find flies. You see them
collect en masse along the edges of wounds and on the eyelids of all farm
animals. They seem to have an insatiable thirst. This is because, as noted
before, they are unable to eat food -- they must drink it. Many provers had
dreams of water. Water was a theme that kept repeating itself in many ways.
2) Flies are attracted to sweets. This is what attracts them
to fly paper. Over five provers had a craving for sweets, specifically for
chocolate.
3) Flies are very sensitive to cold. They move more slowly
as the temperature drops, bumping stupidly into windows and walls. With the
first frost, they drop "like flies". Almost all the provers
experiences an increased sensitive to the cold.
4) All insects are encased in an exoskeleton. They have no
real skin. The fly is especially attracted to wounds and abraded skin. (Some
flies species even bury their eggs in skin of live animals; when the eggs
hatch, the maggots feed on the flesh and a terrible ulcerative patch forms.)
Many skin eruptions appeared in the proving. Musca domestica may be indicated
in recurring herpetic eruptions.
5) Filth, trash, decomposing flesh, garbage and fecal matter
are areas of special interest to the fly. So, too, with the provers. One prover
thought the was being followed by garbage. There was a theme of corruption and
decay. "Proverted" images appeared in life and in dreams. Many
provers experienced disgust with their surroundings.
6) As mentioned before, flies are incredibly prolific. Many
provers experienced an increased libido. But there was this caveat: the
proclivity for a specific gender seemed to be ambiguous. Homosexuality and
pornography were recurring themes throughout the proving and appeared in dreams
and in delusions.
7) Finally, flies have always been connected with Beelzebub,
the Lord of the Flies. They say that when the devil is abroad there's a smell
of sulphur in the air, of something burnt, of something rotting. With some of
the provers, there were either delusions of smell or increased sensitivity to smell
in general.
When THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF HOMEOPATHY decided to
conduct a Hahnemanian proving, we reached out to the larger homeopathic
community in New York for both provers and supervisors. Why did we select the
common housefly? Because we wanted to expand the materia medica from the animal
kingdom and we wanted to prove a very common substance. What better choice than
a common pest that has plagued mankind from his beginning?
And so, after much amusing fly gathering and attempted storage, we realized
instead, that a pupa should be sent to Michael Quinn at Hahnemann Pharmacy so
it would be easily classified. As a promoter of provings, Michael generously
made 12 vials of 30c potency for us. (It should be noted that there was no way
for Michael to know whether it was male or female, and we are not sure whether
or not this is important.)
We followed the instructions laid out in Jeremy Sherr's The Dynamics and
Methodology of Homoeopathic Provings, and printed separate pages of
instructions for provers and supervisors to be handed out at our first meeting
on January 27, 1999. There was one supervisor for every prover and they were
asked to communicate daily. The remedy was distributed on February 10, after
two weeks of journal entries in order to help establish previous states. Each
prover was asked to call the supervisor after each dose of the remedy- and they
were told not to take even a second dose if they felt any symptoms at all.
Needless to say, some provers took more of the remedy than they needed, and
perhaps some took less. One prover took the remedy in the midst of a terrible
cold, and so we eliminated her from the proving as it would have been difficult
to know which symptoms to attribute to the remedy. Another prover discovered
she was pregnant shortly before remedy distribution, so we only allowed her to
put the vial under her pillow. We were now left with 10 viable provers. As
Master Provers, one of us was concerned that there would be no symptoms, and
the other was afraid there would be overreact ions. The truth is that with most
provings, the results lie somewhere in between. We had one prover who
experienced a remarkable cure of her pain from rheumatoid arthritis. And yet,
at the other extreme, we had a prover who suffered terribly from the mumps.
When hearing information of this sort, it is important to remember that, as
Hahnemann said, no matter what the results of the proving, we are all in a
higher state of health or awareness from the experience. Not only have we
helped to expand our materia medica, but one is a healthier person as a result.
The kind of introspection that one experiences during a proving alone is a mind
expanding treat. So, rather than feel as though it is some form of Russian
Roulette, be confident that whether you temporarily suffer or not with unusual
symptoms, somehow, you will be a better person for the experience.
Some of the general reactions were quite interesting- some
provers got angry with their supervisors, and some were angry with us, the
master provers. One prover who had seemed to enjoy every moment of the proving
got quite upset after finding out it had been "a grotesques
substance". At the extraction meeting six weeks later, almost all the
provers said they would take part in another proving. Both of us, the master
provers, slept with the remedy under our pillows and experienced strong
symptoms- Robert Stewart called it a feeling of being a depressed Nux Vomica.
Irritability was a strong factor for everyone. As always there was a lot of
guessing as to the substance they were proving. Not surprisingly, there were
some close guesses- one prover thought it was a cockroach, another prover's
wife believed it was a fly.
At the extraction meeting, there was a lot of talk about
putrification, rotting garbage, maggots, corruption. excrement, toilets,
sewers, tunnels and dirty water. There were many dreams of water, it was
probably our most common symptom. There were lakes, oceans, beaches, dirty,
dreary beaches, public bathhouses- two provers dreampt of Mediterranean scenes
by the sea. There was floating on water, swimming in water, falling into water
and so on. The case that follows was based somewhat on the numerous dreams of
water along with other fly symptoms.
There were many other vivid dreams; dreams of tunnels, houses underground, trap
doors, cellars and tree roots. There were dreams of the dead, dreams of fire,
dreams of houses and dreams of floating, flying and lightness. One prover
dreampt of being covered in excrement (flies lay their eggs in excrement), and
another dreampt of being a baby elephant covered in mud or oil.
There were many sexual dreams and we found it interesting that the repertory
does not cover sexual dreams. Four of our provers had recurring sexual dreams,
one more dreampt of rape, and three others had recurring dreams of gay men or
homosexual issues. And there were dreams of committing unlawful acts or being
the victim of a crime, as well as threatening dreams. One prover also dreamt of
imprisonment, while two dreamt of the police and two others of soldiers.
Among the other mind symptoms that were revealed at the
extraction meeting was a general confusion of mind. It seems this is a common
symptom in provings, possibly because of the introspection and the common
expectations of symptoms. In this case though, there was some interesting
gender confusion. One young child who's parent's had both taken the remedy,
called his mother, Daddy and his father, Mommy. Our most reliable prover had
strong feelings of lurking homosexuality. He felt men were watching him,
touching him and were attracted to him. He admitted to a homophobic reaction,
one that he believed was an entirely new symptom.
There was an unusual fastidiousness- three provers said that
they could not stop cleaning until everything was in its place, and this was
for them a definitely new symptom. The other strong mind symptom was a
sensation of isolation, which is listed as a rubric in the Complete Repertory,
but without remedies within the rubric. It was a strong feeling within the
group- one supervisor said she only wanted to communicate via email (this was
against our instructions), another supervisor stopped communicating in any way
at all, leaving that prover feeling completely isolated. Many others expressed
this sensation, in this language. In addition, those same provers expressed
feelings of self pity- its not clear if these two ideas would exist separately
or if they fed on each other. The feeling was strong enough for us to use the
rubrics, pities herself and forsaken feeling, (or delusion forsaken).
Physically, the most common symptom was a heaviness in the
limbs (heaviness, externally), and for some a heaviness alternating with
lightness. Going along with this was an awkwardness in the extremities- seven
out of ten provers felt one or both of these sensations. There was also
numbness of the extremities, particularly the arms. And, there were many skin
eruptions. Every prover who had ever had herpetic eruptions, had an outbreak
during the proving. The good news is that these same provers had the longest
period of relief ever, following the proving. It is clearly a useful remedy for
herpetic eruptions as you will see in the following case.
Lack of vital heat and a desire for chocolate must also be
mentioned, as well as a kind of constipation that did not include the urge to
go (urging absent?, must strain?, insufficient?, incomplete?, unsatisfactory?).
The physical symptoms (and mind symptoms) that have been mentioned here were
shared by at least four out of ten provers, and therefore seem unmistakably
part of this remedy. But what does a master prover do with the symptoms from
one really sensitive prover?
After much deliberation, we decided that every one of his symptoms was valid.
We came to this conclusion after recalling the way Jeremy Sherr spoke of his
especially sensitive prover- a woman who was able to get so close to the remedy
he was proving that she almost became one with the remedy (his description of
the Eagle proving was a very powerful explanation of this phenomenon). For us,
prover #5 was just such a prover. Even before he took the remedy he was having
sensations (he smelled the remedy and it smelled like "quite ripe
peaches"). He was drawn to garbage and the brackish water in the subway,
he constantly used language like "being surrounded by corruption and
decay", he saw garbage "moving", in fact he said he believed the
remedy was about garbage and that the remedy was degrading and decomposing.
A week into the proving he opened a new book to a random page and it was about
maggots cleaning pearls- and he knew this was important enough to write up in
his journal. His wife (who got a bit fed up with all his new symptoms from the
proving) tells him that it is a sea worm or a fly. He had many skin eruptions,
though after the proving his herpes did not erupt for at least another year,
and his TMJ of one year duration resolved completely. Our magic prover felt
like an "animal with his eyes darting about", and he had visions of a
dead squirrel with beetles and wasps burrowing into its collapsed eyes. Lots of
other images (listed below) haunted him, and he was the prover who had many
fears and obsessive thoughts about homosexuality. Every symptom that he
mentioned seemed relevant- and it was clear to us at the extraction meeting. He
enjoyed the experience- you could tell by the way he made his report. He seemed
to feel that he had been possessed temporarily and it was an interesting trip.
He enjoyed being a fly.
Before we list the rubrics that Musca Domestica should join,
we must mention the two provers at the extreme ends of reaction. Prover #1 took
the remedy and a few days later found himself quite ill with the mumps. Did
this remedy give him the mumps? Its such an interesting question- and quite an
unanswerable one. It certainly pushed him over an edge. He must have been
exposed to the mumps (he is a school teacher), and it is not a stretch of the
imagination to assume that the remedy helped the disease develop. Would he have
gotten the mumps without the remedy? We will never know. But it is particularly
interesting that Culex Musca (mosquito) has "pain as if he were going to
have mumps" (Kent). And then there is prover #2 who had been suffering
with severe arthritic pains for 15 years. She tested positive for Rheumatoid
Arthritis and her main complaint was that she felt heavy, tired and old with
the pain. When she first took the remedy she fell asleep for a nap and dreamt
that she was flying from room to room, flying all over her house. When she woke
up, her pain was gone. Throughout the proving,she experienced many other
symptoms as well, but her pain never returned. It was probably not a
simmillimum (her case is not "cleared") but it was obviously curative
on this level.
A proving is a journey- an honorable journey for all
involved. It should be embarked on with care and caution but without fear. We
hope to encourage many more Hahnemanian provings, not only to increase and
strengthen our materia medica, but to increase awareness and strengthen the
homeopathic community.
Rubrics
REPERTORY ADDITIONS FOR MUSCA DOMESTICA
GENERALITIES:
FOOD AND
DRINK:
bacon,
desires
beer,
desires, in morning
chocolate,
desires (provers 3, 4, 7, 9)
coffee,
desires
food, sour,
desires (provers 2, 9)
food, water,
aversion (prover 5)
food,
cheese, desires (prover 5)
cheese,
aggr. (5)
vinegar,
desires
heaviness,
externally (provers 1, 2, 4, 5, 6)
heaviness,
internally, (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
alternating
with lightness (provers 2, 3)
heat, vital,
lack of (provers 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
heat, alt w/
chill (5)
lassitude,
(2, 6, 9)
paralysis,
sensation of (2)
weakness,
(nearly all provers had some form of weakness)
weakness,
with restlessness
weather,
storm, during agg (5)
MIND:
activity,
desire for, exercise, physical
anger,
easily (2, 3)
ANXIETY,
(provers 5, 6, 8)
anxiety,
time is set (4)
anxiety,
when alone
anxiety,
with congestion
anxiety,
driving from place to place
anxiety,
health (1, 2, 4,)
aversion,
people, certain, old women (5)
awkwardness
(2, 5, 7)
company,
aversion to (5)
confounding,
objects and ideas (8, 9)
confusion of
mind, (provers 1, 4, 7, 8, 9)
confusion of
mind, identity, sexual (provers 3, 5, 6, 8,
10)
conscientious,
about trifles (6)
cursing (1,
2, 3, 5) (many provers used the word “shit” often-
even
during the extraction meeting)
DELUSIONS:
delusion,
he, she is being watched (prover 5)
delusion,
died, and is alive again (prover 1)
delusion,
1000 fingers scratching his body
delusion,
dirty, foul, everything is
delusion,
floating on a man's back (2)
delusion,
followed by men
delusion,
followed by garbage
delusion,
hears retching (5)
delusion,
garbage is beautiful (5)
delusion,
garbage is moving (5)
delusion,
beautiful things, look, everyone (9)
delusion,
frenzy of hands while washing face (5)
delusion,
animal,is (5)
delusion,
eyes darting like an animal (5)
delusion,
visions of, dead animals with insects eating out eyes
delusion,
body and mind are separated (5)
delusion,
inferior and superior at same time (2)
delusion,
lighter (2, 3)
delusion,
metamorphis (1)
delusion, vision
like a kaleidoscope (1)
delusion,
sees 100 eyes (5)
delusion,
sees insect eggs and fish eggs (5)
delusion, of
maggots, vermin, insects
delusion,
more masculine (3)
delusion,
separated from group (9)
delusion,
surrounded by corruption, decay (5)
delusion,
smell
delusion,
talking as if asleep (1)
delusion,
unappreciated (1, 2, 3, 9)
delusion,
water ,foul
delusion,
younger (2)
despair
desires,
love, romantic (9)
desires,
vacation, holiday (5)
DREAMS:
dreams,
abortion
dreams,
babies, sick
dreams,
beaches
dreams,
betrayal
dreams,
black, oily, glob
dreams,
blood
dreams,
boats
dreams,
bombs
dreams, cats
dreams,
criminals
dreams,
crypt
dreams,
corruption
dreams,
decomposition
dreams, dead
friends
dreams, dead
relatives
dreams,
disgusting (provers 5, 9)
dreams, dirt
(prover 5)
dreams,
dogs, black
dreams,
drowning
dreams,
dying, of cholera (5)
dreams,
elevators
dreams,
excrements (prover 5; many provers used the word “shit”)
dreams,
factory
dreams,
falling (prover 8)
dreams,
falling into water
dreams, fire
(prover 6, 8, 9)
dreams,
floods
dreams,
flying (prover 2)
dreams,
flying from room to room
dreams, fish
dreams,
floating (prover 2)
dreams, ghosts
dreams,
glass buildings
dreams,
grass
dreams,
games
dreams,
hair, red
dreams,
horses
dreams,
homosexuals
dreams,
houses (provers 2, 5, 7, 8)
dreams,
islands
dreams,
Italy, Mediterranean images
dreams,
landlord
dreams,
lewd, lascivious
dreams,
lewd, lascivious with orgasm
dreams,
looking down from above
dreams,
marriage, weddings
dreams,
Mediterranean
dreams,
money
dreams,
monsters
dreams,
murder
dreams, nuns
dreams,
pedophilia
dreams,
picking sores until they bled (5)
dreams,
police (provers 5, 6)
dreams,
pregnant
dreams,
pursued
dreams,
prostitutes
dreams, rape
dreams,
soldiers (provers 5, 7)
dreams, red
dress
dreams,
Russian soldier, being, Grand Armee (5)
dreams,
sewer
dreams,
sexual
dreams,
sexual violence
dreams,
sharks
dreams,
skating
dreams,
surgery
dreams,
swimming
dreams,
threatening (threats?) (provers 3, 6, 8, 9)
dreams,
toilet
dreams,
trolls, crones
dreams,
tumor
dreams,
tunnels
dreams,
violence
dreams, war
dreams,
water (provers 5, 6, 8, 9; recurring dreams)
dreams,
water, dirty (prover 5)
dreams,
water, falling into
dreams,
water, people swimming in (prover 5, 6)
dreams,
water, swimming in (prover 5, 6)
dreams,
water, falling into (prover 9)
dreams,
worms
dreams,
vivid
dwelling on
past disagreeable circumstances (2, 3)
elation
(2, 4, 5)
extravagance
(5)
fastidious
(3, 6, 9)
FEARS:
fear,
accident (6)
fear, for
others
fear,
homosexuality (5)
fear,
abandonment by wife (5)
fear, men,
African American (9)
fear, sexual
assault (9)
forgetfulness
(3, 4, 5, 8, 9)
forgotten,
something, feels as if he had (8, 9)
forsaken
forsaken,
sensation of isolation (1, 2, 3, 9)
hopeless
(3, 2, 9)
impatience,
with children (1, 2, 3, 9)
indolence
(1, 8)
industrious
(2)
irresolution
(7)
loathing,
self (2, 3)
love, of
opposite sex
memory,
weakness of (provers 3, 7)
memory, weakness
of, for proper names (prover 7, 3 times)
memory,
weakness of, for words (prover 5)
mistakes,
talking, words (5)
mistakes,
gender (6)
mistakes, in
localities (8)
mistakes,
about objects (8, 9)
mistakes,
names (7)
pities
herself, (provers 1, 2, 3, 9)
reproaches,
others (9)
restlessness
restlessness,
with pain
sadness
(provers 3, 5, 7)
sadness,
before menses
sensitive,
to noise (9)
high
pitched noise (9)
stupefaction,
as if intoxicated (1, 3)
sympathy,
desires (1, 2, 3, 9)
suicidal
thoughts (2, 3)
thoughts,
rapid (1)
weeping,
tearful mood, tendency (provers 3, 7)
weeping,
causeless (7)
VERTIGO:
in am (4)
light headed
(6)
drifts or
falls (5, 6)
falling to
left (5)
HEAD:
dry,
flaking, scalp (5)
HEAD PAIN:
headache,
frontal, pressure (6)
dull,
gripping like too much caffeine (9)
dull occiput
(1)
throbbing
head and above eyes (6)
pressure,
frontal (6)
pressure
temples (5) <lying down
head pain
before menses (3, 4)
EYE:
sty right
eye
discharge
right eye
eyelid opens
and shuts involuntarily
eye, dryness
VISION:
difficulty
focusing
as if a bug
was flying in peripheral sight (prover #7)
blurry when
reading (4)
EAR:
pain, aching
noises,
ringing
eruption,
oozing, earlobe
pain,
cutting
HEARING:
noises, like
honey (5)
sounds are
stretched (5)
FACE:
inflammation,
parotid gland (prover 1)
eruption,
herpetic, lip (provers 3, 5, 8)
eruption,
herpetic, lip, lower (provers 5, 8)
eruption,
herpetic, mouth, corners of (prover 6)
(3
provers had at least a 6 month “cure” of their herpes)
eruptions,
forehead (prover 5; new symptom persisted)
eruptions,
eyebrows, painful to touch (5)
eruption,
over left eye (5)
MOUTH:
mouth,
hemorrhage, gums (provers 7, 9)
mouth,
saliva, in gushes
mouth,
saliva, profuse
mouth,
salivation with mumps (prover 1)
taste,
lemons in mouth (2)
gums, spongy
(9)
lower gum
line feels thin and stings (5)
chancre sore
on tongue (6)
chancre sore
on lip (3)
breath,
odor, fetid (5)
crack, lip,
split (5)
frothy
mucous on waking
TEETH:
toothache
while eating chocolate (4)
teeth ache
(6)
pain right
lower teeth (7)
NOSE:
catarrh (4)
obstruction
(4)
odors,
imagined and real, fruit, peaches
odors,
imagined and real sulfur
SMELL:
acrid smell
about me (10)
odor of
chemicals in air - couldn't breathe (2)
the remedy
smelled like quite ripe peaches (5)
acute sense
of smell(5)
THROAT:
sore throat
(8)
sore throat
>tea (4)
sore throat
w/ears tickling (4)
EXTERNAL THROAT:
pain,
sub-mandular, left side
tightness
EXPECTORATION:
mucous,
throat, stuck
greenish
yellow
yellow
STOMACH:
pain and gas
(3, 5)
appetite
ceaseless (3)
appetite
wanting for dinner (3)
upset
stomach >drinking cold water (5)
pain sharp
(6)
pain w/
belching (5, 7)
appetite
wanting (4)
spikes or
flashes of nausea (8)
sour
eructations (5)
ABDOMEN:
pain, knot
pain, sharp
over bowel
pain, dull
BACK/NECK:
Back/neck:
sensation of gap in mid-back; as if back were separated (5)
pain, nape
neck (4)
pain, coccyx
dull,
throbbing pain
tension,
neck/shoulders
neck pulling
to left
CHEST:
pain,
mammae, nipples, in men
pain,
mammae, menses, before (prover 4; new symptom)
swelling,
mammae, menses, before (prover 4; new symptom)
pain, gas,
center chest, radiating
pain,
constriction
pain, aching
EXTREMITIES:
awkwardness
(provers 2, 3, 5, 7)
awkwardness,
hands
awkwardness,
lower limbs
coldness,
feet
numbness,
insensibility (provers 4, 8, 9)
numbness,
insensibility, upper limbs (provers 4, 9)
numbness,
lower limbs
numbness,
arms on waking
numbness,
feet
EXTREMITY PAIN:
joints
shoulders
hurt laying on side (7) in bed
right
shoulder ache ext to wrist (7) in bed
ache, upper
ext.
ache, upper
ext. at night (8)
ache,
shoulders
ache upper
arms
cracking
pain groin <-- walking (6)
pain,
lancinating, knee
soreness,
feet, soles
pinching,
wrist
throbbing
pain, hip
throbbing,
wrist
stiffness
FEMALE:
eruption,
herpetic (provers 3, 6)
eruption,
boil, labia (6)
sexual,
desire, increased (provers 2, 6, 9)
masturbation,
desire to (6)
menses,
painful, dysmenorrhea (prover 4)
menses,
brown discharge (prover 4; new symptom)
menses,
profuse (prover 4; new symptom)
menses,
intermittent, (prover 4, 9)
menses,
spotting (6)
pain, lower
vaginal region (6)
pain, ovary,
left
sharp pain,
cervix (prover 9)
sharp pain,
left ovaries (prover 4; new symptom)
HEAT:
fever, high
(4)
MALE:
male, sexual
desire increased,
pain, testes
pain,
testes, pinching (R. and radiating to thigh)
penis,
flaccid
impotent
PERSPIRATION:
night sweats
(7)
RECTUM:
rectum,
constipation (provers 4, 5, 7, 9)
must
strain
urging
absent
insufficient,
incomplete, unsatisfactory
excessive
flatulence, smelly (5, 7)
STOOL:
dry
pasty
soft
color, light
brown
loose (7)
RESPIRATION:
shortness of
breath
SKIN:
ERUPTIONS
(provers 3, 5, 6, 7, 8)
eruptions,
herpetic (same provers)
boil right
upper back (6)
eruption,
cervical area (5)
rash, red,
above L axilla after bathing (6)
rash, flat,
pink, scaly on chest (6)
bumps,
raised, red, upper thigh (8)
eczema,
hands
skin, greasy
(5)
SLEEP:
deep,
soporific sleep (5)
fetal
position, right side (9)
snoring
during nap (9)
overwhelming
desire to sleep (1)
deep
unrefreshing sleep (5)
waking
groggy (1, 3)
sleeping
early (5)
restless (7)
waking late
(7)
sleepiness
(6)
URINE:
musty
smelling (6)
SEEMINGLY CURED SYMPTOMS:
TMJ
of 1 year duration disappeared (prover 5)
Rheumatoid
Arthritis, more than 10 years of pain disappeared
Numbers of
cases of herpetic eruptions disappeared for at
least
6 months
mouth, dry,
before sleep (had the symptom for 3 months
before
the proving)
NEW REPERTORY RUBRICS FOR MUSCA DOMESTICA:
mind,
dreams, sexual
mind,
dreams, sexual, violent (rape)
mind,
dreams, mediterranean scene
mind,
dreams, beach
mind,
dreams, homosexual
mind,
dreams, men, gay
mind,
dreams, trolls, crones, etc.
mind,
dreams, corruption
mind,
dreams, decomposition, decay, rotting, etc.
mind, dreams,
toilet, sewer, etc
mind,
dreams, tunnel
mind,
dreams, boats
mind,
dreams, grass
mind,
delusion scratched by 1000 fingers
IDEAS DIFFICULT TO REPERTORIZE:
prover
#4 had image of picking sores until they bled,
just
before taking the remedy.
prover #7
feels this is the spirit of an insect or rodent
prover #9
said “life is a hopeless dump”
the
word shit comes up often with provers 1, 2, 3
prover # 1
says “i feel like I’ve woken from the dead”
after
mumps, and “I feel like I’ve gone through
a
metamorphosis”.
prover #1
had kaleidoscopic images
provers # 9,
10 had paranoia about black men (mind, fear, ?)
symptoms
surrounding car problems-- mixed up keys, locked
keys
in car, car went off road (provers 3, 6, 8)
many strange
or perverted sexual thoughts and dreams
(see
dreams sexual) guilty pain in stomach (4)
SPECIAL PROVER’S SYMPTOMS: (not rubrics) (#5)
del. frenzy
of hands when washing face
del. the
water on his wrist looks like many eyes
del. lint on
robe looks like nest of insects or fish eggs
del. sees
hundreds of eyes in soap foam
del. garbage
moved
del.
surrounded by corruption and decay
del. was in
Grand Armee and dying of cholera on his
return
from Russia
del. feels
like an animal with eyes darting about
del. hears
retching in subway
vision of
dead squirrel with beetles and wasps burrowing into
its
collapsed eyes
homophobia,
fear/ obsession with homosexuality
thinks,
sees, “Italian” people and things (also #2 & others,
“things
Mediterranean")
desire to
stay home and protect wife
fears wife
is leaving him
flinched-
thought wife would hit him
had a
compulsive need to buy things
was drawn to
brackish water in subway
he thought
remedy was degrading and decomposing
he opened a
book to random page and it was about maggots
cleaning
pearls
his wife
guesses that the remedy is a sea worm or a fly
he thought
the remedy was about garbage- the word garbage keeps coming up