Dr Gurkirat Kaur1, Dr Ashna Singh2
In the world of homeopathic medicine, Tarentula Cubensis and Tarentula Hispanica are two fascinating remedies made from the venom of the tarantula spider. These remedies have caught the attention of both practitioners and patients due to their unique healing properties.
This article delves into the distinct characteristics, and uses of Tarentula Cubensis and Tarentula Hispanica. By examining their individual traits, this analysis aims to provide valuable insights for practitioners in prescribing these spider-derived remedies, offering a nuanced understanding of their roles within the holistic landscape of homeopathic medicine.
Doctrine of signature:
- Spider has eight legs surrounding the whole body and in constant motion- the patients are always restless.
- The spider captures its prey in a very cunning and deceptively woven web- the patients are cunning and deceptive in their behavior
- The action of the poison is very violent- the complaints of the patients are also violent
- The male spider is known to dance during the mating season to attract the females- the patient desires to dance which relieves his complaints
Tarentula hispanica
Tarentula hispanica is commonly called Spanish Spider.
Toxicological effects (As sourced from A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica by J.H Clarke):
Girl, three months old, was bitten by a tarentula. She appeared at first uneasy, then exhibited dyspnśa, and complained, showed signs of suffocation, vomited, was agitated and much convulsed. Music was played; movements of the limbs were set up, whence resulted profuse sweat, followed by sleep and complete recovery. Francis Mustel, a peasant, was bitten by a tarentula on the left hand, about the middle of July, as he was gathering corn. He went home with his companions but on the way fell as if struck by apoplexy. Dyspnoea followed, and face, hands, and feet became dark. Knowing the remedy, his companions fetched musicians. When the patient heard their playing he began to revive, to sigh, to move first his feet, then his hands, and then the whole body; at last getting on his feet he took to dancing violently, with sighing so laboured that the bystanders were almost frightened. At times he rolled himself on the ground and struck it vehemently with his feet. Two hours after the music began the blackness of his face and hands went off, he sweated freely, and regained perfect health. Every succeeding year at the same season the pain and attending symptoms returned, but less violently; and they could always be averted by music. But if the imminent paroxysm was not averted in time, he was found by his friends struck down as at first and was restored in the same way.
There is a theme of restlessness running through the remedy. Remarkable nervous phenomena; hysteria with chlorosis; chorea. Trembling and jerking convulsions. It has an appearance very much like St. Vitus’ Dance and hence has cured chorea when it was better from music. But it will also cure when the patient is worse from music. Extreme restlessness; must keep in constant motion even though walking aggravates. Hysterical epilepsy. The extreme restlessness of the limbs is like Ars., and it is a deep acting medicine like Ars., and it sometimes has cured where Ars. has failed, although it seemed well selected. Anxiety, restlessness, constant motion of the arms, legs, trunk and head. Restlessness of the limbs in the evening, in bed before going to sleep, like Ars. and Lyc.
Anxiety and restlessness are words that prevail through all the conditions in it. It is much like Ars. The anxiety is felt sometimes in the mind, sometimes in the whole body, sometimes in the limbs and in the stomach. The patient must constantly busy herself or walk.
Like the spider, the Tarentula children are also very restless, their movements are very irregular, abrupt and not rhythmic (Lachesis have rhythmic movements). They have tremendous energy within them and it is very difficult to restrain them. Hence, they are so restless and constantly busy doing something. They have tremendous mania to dance.
Another marked feature of the remedy is its intense sexual excitement. There is uncontrollable sexual desire and he seems in a state of mind wherein he has no desire to control himself and his sexual passions; lasciviousness almost to insanity. Onanism followed by prostatic troubles. Seminal emissions; semen is bloody. In the female also there is violent, uncontrollable sexual erethism.
There is also noticed a sudden alteration of mood. There are sudden fox-like destructive efforts, requiring utmost vigilance to prevent damage ; followed by laughter and apologies.
The destructive impulses are almost always present. Violence is a strong feature of the remedy. Violence with anger. Tears his clothing. ; moral relaxation. Great taciturnity and irritability; desire to strike himself and others. Desire to take things which do not belong to her.
These patients often feign sickness and are quite hysterical. Farrington gives among the mental symptoms: “When there are no observers there is no hysteria; when attention is directed to her she begins to twitch”; and “cunning attempts to feign paroxysms of wild dancing.” Tarentula patients feign all sorts of sickness, especially fainting. They not only imagine themselves sick, but they pretend to be sick when they are not.
There has been noticed marked dysmenorrhœa in the females. There is pain in the uterine region, associated with constrictive headache. The patient feels sore and bruised all over, particularly when moving about. She longs for sleep, but is so nervous that she cannot sleep. Violent itching of the genitals extending far up into the vagina, worse at night. Pain and violent cramps in the uterus.
The periodicity in this remedy is so well marked that it has been a marked curative remedy in intermittent fevers with restlessness of limbs, with aching of the bones, with stitching pains, with the anxiety, especially when these come in the evening and the fever lasts all night.
There is a particular sensitivity to music. Desire to run about, to dance and jump up and down. Great fantastic dancing. Sometimes, music ameliorates all the symptoms and other times it aggravates them. He becomes violently excited from music.
Tarentula cubensis:
It is also called the hairy spider or the cuban spider
The Mygale Cubensis, which may also be called the Cuban Tarentula, also found in South Carolina and Texas, is a larger spider, of a dark brown colour, less poisonous, and covered with more hairs than the Tarentula Hispanica.
Toxicological effects (As sourced from A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica by J.H Clarke):
The bite is painless, the person is not sensible of it till next day, when an inflamed pimple is found surrounded by a scarlet areola, from the pimple to some other part of the body a red erysipelatous line is seen, marking the line followed by the spider over the skin after biting. This pimple swells, the inflamed areola spreads, chills and fever set in with copious sweat and retention of urine, the pimple becomes a hard, large, exceedingly painful abscess, ending by mortification of the integuments over it, and having several small openings, discharging a thick, sanious matter containing pieces of mortified cellular tissue, fasciae, and tendons, the openings by growing run into one another, forming a large cavity, at this period the fever takes the intermittent type with evening exacerbations.
Nash says, It is one of the most efficacious remedies for boils, abscesses, felons or swellings of any kind where the tissues put on a bluish color, and there are intense burning pains. He has seen felons which have kept patients awake night after night walking the floor in agony from the terrible pains so relieved in a very short time that they could sleep in perfect comfort until the swellings spontaneously discharged and progressed to a rapid cure.
A toxaemic medicine, septic conditions. Adapted to the most severe types of inflammation and pain, early and persistent prostration.
Various forms of malignant suppuration: Carbuncles with characteristic burning, stinging pains and a purplish hue. Gangrene. Abscesses, where pain and inflammation predominate. “Senile” ulcers. Board like hardness of affected part and copious sweat.
Conclusion:
Both Tarentula hispanica and Tarentula cubensis share a common trait of excessive sweating, indicating a similarity between them. However, a notable distinction arises in their effects: hispanica induces convulsions and spasms, whereas cubensis is employed for conditions such as felons and abscesses, where intense pain is prevalent.
References:
- Boericke W. New manual of homoeopathic materia medica & repertory with relationship of remedies: Including Indian drugs, nosodes uncommon, rare remedies, mother tinctures, relationship, sides of the body, drug affinites & list of abbreviation: 3rd edition. New Delhi, India: B Jain; 2023.
- Clarke J.H. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica. 1900.
- Hering C. Hering’s guiding symptoms of our materia medica. New Delhi: B. Jain; 2015.
- Jain P. Essence of Pediatric Materia Medica. 2nd edition. Nitya publications; 2019.
- Kent JT. Lectures on homoeopathic materia medica: Together with Kent’s “new remedies” incorporated & arranged in one alphabetical order. New Delhi, India: B Jain; 2023.
- Nash EB. Leaders in homoeopathic therapeutics: With grouping & classification: 6th edition. New Delhi, India: B Jain; 2021
- Patil J.D. Group Study In Homeopathic Materia Medica. 2007.
- Phatak SR. Concise materia medica of homoeopathic medicine. New Delhi: B. Jain; 1999.
Author details:
PG scholar, Batch 2020-23, Department of Repertory, Bakson Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital. kpaintal@gmail.com
2. PG scholar, Batch 2021-24, Department of Repertory, Bakson Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital singh.ashna96@gmail.com
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