Homoeopathic Medicine - Tarentula Drug Picture
This Resource is a drug picture presentation of Tarentula Medicines Group, compiled and presented by Dr. Saloni Jain and Dr. Viraj Shah.
Homoeopathy Medicine - Tarentula Drug Picture - By Dr. Saloni Jain and Dr. Viraj Shah
KEY SYMPTOMS
- sensitivity to music
- mood swings
- extreme restlessness
- rolling from side to side
- promiscuity and heightened libido
- craving for spicy foods
S O U R C E D E T A I L S
O R I G I N
Found in many parts of southern Europe.
B A C K G R O U N D
Not used medicinally outside homeopathy, although a related species, the trapdoor spider (Cteniza fodiens), is used for swellings and skin ulcers in traditional Chinese medicine.
P R E P A R A T I O N
The whole, live spider is macerated in alcohol and left to dissolve. The resulting solution is then succussed and diluted.
C O M M O N N A M E S
Tarentula, wolf spider, Spanish spider, hunting spider.
Often confused with the formidable American arachnid, which belongs to
a different family, this European spider is not deadly. However, its bite was once thought to cause tarantism, a disease marked by either mania or melancholy.
The name "tarentula" is derived from Tarento, a port on the coast of southeast Italy that was particularly associated with the spider. The common names "wolf spider" and "hunting spider" arose from this species' habit of chasing its prey rather than trapping it in a web. Tarentula was proved in 1864 by the Spanish homeopath Dr. Nunez, and is used for overstimulation of the nervous system.
Those who respond best to Tarentula often exhibit signs of hyperactivity, overstimulation, and extreme sensitivity to music. They are full of energy, with a constant sense of hurry, impatience, and physical and mental restlessness. A classic symptom is mood swings, where laughter
and happiness are rapidly replaced by violent, destructive rage and a marked tendency to be manipulative. When ill, these people tend to roll from side to side in an attempt to ease their
symptoms. Their constant restlessness makes them unable to remain still for any length of
time. They often crave salty or spicy foods, and may have a strong aversion to meat.
Tarentula is most commonly prescribed to treat extreme anger and mood swings, restless
limbs and chorea (also called St. Vitus' dance) and certain heart problems. It is also given for
some ailments affecting women's health and hyperactivity, particularly in children.
Mind
- HYPERACTIVE. RESTLESSNESS. Must keep busy. Compulsive worker. Can be internal
restlessness.
- Hurried. Impatient. Everybody must hurry.
- INTENSE. Nervous. Boundless nervous energy.
- Desire for rhythmic MUSIC, DANCING.
- Aversion being touched.
- AVERSION TO AND agg. BRIGHT, STRONG COLORS.
- Anxiety things will not get done, something will go wrong.
- Hysterical states when tension is to great. Spasms, fainting attacks.
- Loses control. DESTRUCTIVE IMPULSES. Violent when restrained. Wildness.
- Cunning. Tries to hide impulses.
- Destructiveness. Breaks things. Tears clothes. Self-injury.
- Insanity. Destructive violence with superhuman strength. Desire to kill. Erotic mania.
- Delusions of monsters, insects, ghosts.
Generalities
- amel. VIGOROUS MOTION.
- amel. RHYTHMIC MUSIC. DANCING.
- amel. Rubbing (Phos, Plb).
- agg. Touch.
- agg. Bright, strong colors.
- Chilly. agg. Cold.
- CONVULSIONS. CHOREA. TWITCHINGS. JERKS.
- Emaciation.
- Burning pains.
- Periodicity.
- Formication.
Food and drinks
- Desire: Spices, cold drinks, raw food, sand, salt.
- Aversion: Meat.
Head
- Violent, neuralgic pain amel. rubbing head, brushing or pulling hair.
Rectum
- Constipation. Stool remains long in rectum, no urging and awful anxiety.
Constipation with restlessness and rubbing head against pillow.
Bladder
- Tenesmus agg. during menses.
Male genitalia
- Desire increased. Promiscuous.
- Tumors in testes.
Female genitalia
- Desire increased. Promiscuous.
- Itching, deep in vagina, agg. menses.
- Tumors. Fibroids. Cancer.
- Metrorrhagia.
- Dysmenorrhea with very sensitive ovaries.
- Sensation as from foetus in uterus. Burning in uterus.
Cough
- Cough agg. coition.
Chest
- Sensation as if heart twisted and turned around.
- Heart takes sudden jumps.
- Mitral valve degeneration with violent palpitations.
- Angina pectoris.
Back
- Painfully sensitive spine.
- Tumors around spinal column.
Extremities
- RESTLESSNESS. FIDGETY.
- Restless feet and legs in bed.
- CHOREA. TWITCHES. JERKS.
- Numbness and weakness of legs.
- Fingertips oversensitive, amel. rubbing.
Sleep
- RESTLESSNESS.
Skin
- Boils. Carbuncles.
- Deep abscesses.
- Itching and formication as from insects creeping (Coca, Sec).
- Ecchymosis.
WOLF SPIDERS:
The wolf spiders or hunting spiders [family Lycosidae] are ground-dwelling vagabonds that lie in ambush or freely hunt their prey. Males have no permanent burrow but live a nomadic life of wandering; females live in a burrow. The majority of the species make up the genus Lycosa. Wolf spiders make no webs, although some species demonstrate their spinning skills in producing silk-lined burrows below ground with elaborate entrances. They are named for the wolflike method of hunting and pouncing upon prey. "Hers is the method of the cheetah, an animal that is a famous sprinter, but no stayer. ... So the wayfarer, plodding along, awakens to the fact that something is coming down on him like an express train. One backward look is sufficient; the wayfarer accelerates frantically. But usually it is hopeless; the tarantula has had a flying start and is on him almost before he has started. The wayfarer is then either eaten on the spot or dragged to the cellar and eaten there. Lycosa, the wolf spider, is not the sadist that Aranea is. If the prey is large she kills it immediately, for she lacks ropes to tie it and has no web to embarrass it. This means of course that she must often lunch in our own manner, crunching her meat." Not all wolf spiders actively run, as their name suggests, they may sit quietly in ambush and wait until a victim happens to come by. Their eight eyes are arranged in a characteristic fashion: four uniformly small eyes in the anterior row of eyes, two large median eyes in a middle row, and two small or medium-sized eyes in a top row. The posterior eyes allow vision above and behind them and are of importance in avoiding predation. Wolf spiders make up a large proportion of the spider population in the Arctic and on high mountains. The tracheal breathing system of wolf spiders allows them to be extremely agile by comparison to the slower moving bird spiders which have four lungs. "About 2,200 different species occur all over the world, and they may vary quite a bit in size. Smaller wolf spiders [4-10 mm body length] roam freely among stones or low vegetation; only the larger representatives [Arctosa, Trochosa, Alopecosa; 10-20 mm] dig either short tunnels or deep burrows. The most famous wolf spider is certainly the Mediterranean tarantula, the name being derived from the Italian town of Taranto. True tarantulas [Lycosa, Hogna] can reach an impressive 30 mm of body length, but they are not related to the big tropical 'tarantulas', the mygalomorphs, also known as bird spiders. Although tarantulas have long had a reputation as dangerous spiders, the ancient fear of their poisonous bite has been proven to be quite wrong. Probably any bites alleged to be from a tarantula were in fact inflicted by black widow spiders [Latrodectus]. Tarantulas live in silk-lined burrows in the soil." Most species are more active at night or if the sky is overcast. They have good vision and their highly developed sense of touch enables them to react to vibrations caused by the wing beat or by the characteristic walking pattern of the prey. Visual clues also play a role in detecting prey. "Wolf spiders have remarkable powers of observation in recognising landmarks by which to find their way back home after foraging at night. This orientation skill is due to these spiders' eyes being highly sensitive to polarised light." Lycosa tarantula, native to the Mediterranean region, inhabits open places, dry, arid, uncultivated places, exposed to the sun. Females live in cylindrical underground burrows, males are wanderers. Wolf spiders can be tracked during the night because their eyes will reflect the light of a flashlight, in a similar way to a cat's eye. [Wolf spiders have a layer of relective cells in the back of their eyes that functions to increase the amount of light hitting the retina of the spider. Few other spider families have this.]
TARANTISM:
"Dance manias, taking the form of epidemics of raving, jumping, dancing, and convulsions, were reported as early as the 10th century. One such episode, occurring in Italy early in the 13th century, was recorded by physicians of the time whose records have been reviewed by the medical historian H.E. Sigerist. He has written: 'The disease occurred at the height of the summer heat. ... People, asleep or awake, would suddenly jump up, feeling an acute pain like the sting of a bee. Some saw the spider, others did not, but they knew that it must be the tarantula. They ran out of the house into the street, to the market place, dancing in great excitement. Soon they were joined by others who like them had been bitten, or by people who had been stung in previous years. ... Thus groups of patients would gather, dancing wildly in the queerest attire. ... Others would tear their clothes and show their nakedness, losing all sense of modesty. ... Some called for swords and acted like fencers, others for whips and beat each other. ... Some of them had still stranger fancies, liked to be tossed in the air, dug holes in the ground, and rolled themselves into the dirt like swine. They all drank wine plentifully and sang and talked like drunken people." ... Actually the behaviour was very similar to ancient orgiastic rites by which people had worshipped the Greek gods. These had been banned with the advent of Christianity, but were deeply embedded in the culture and were apparently kept alive by secret gatherings. Probably considerable guilt and conflict were engendered; then, with time, the meaning of the dances changed, and the old rites appeared as symptoms of disease. The participants were no longer sinners, but the poor victims of the tarantula. Known as tarantism in Italy, the dancing mania later spread to Germany and the rest of Europe, where it was known as St. Vitus' dance. Other peculiar manifestations also appeared. In the 15th century, a member of a German convent was overcome with a desire to bite her fellow nuns. The practice was taken up by her companions, and the mania spread to other convents in Germany, Holland, and Italy."11 Legend has it that an epidemic of tarantism swept through the town of Taranto in southern Italy between the 15th and 17th centuries. Victims, referred to as tarantati and almost always women, were seized with a dancing frenzy, born of the idea that the bite would be fatal if the victim did not dance hard and long enough, perhaps to sweat the poison out the system. For the performance of the dance music was required, and so musicians would come and play mandolins, guitars and tambourins in search of the correct rhythm. Each beat would have a different effect on the tarantata causing various movements and gestures. Once the correct rhythm was found it was almost certain that the tarantata would awaken cured from the sleep in which she, from sheer exhaustion, had collapsed. Since dancing mania never appears to have occurred among ladies of high ranking or aristocratic upbringing, another version states that women, depressed and frustrated with their subordinate position, would fall into a trance-like state that could only be cured by the music and dance of the 'tarantella', as it was called. Such a cure took three days and provided the tarantata with all the attention she had hoped for. In addition to music, colour also played a role. Coloured ribbons were put on the floor around the dancer who then had to find the right colour and dance looking at it. The colour black generally caused anxiety, whereas green and red were experienced as pleasant. The rhythmic tarantella is still performed at Italian weddings or celebration. It is a couple folk dance characterized by light, quick steps and teasing, flirtatious behaviour between partners. The dance has been defined as a 'high speed pas de deux' that is 'vibrant, colourful and entertaining'. Aside from the spider bite, other explanations that have been put forward to account for tarantism include heat exhaustion, neurosis or acute mental disorder, spirit possession, mass hysteria, and a variant of the dancing mania. According to the Australian sociologist Robert Bartholomew, however, the most likely explanation for dance mania, based on an examination of a representative sample of medieval chronicles, is that "these episodes are best explained as deviant religious sects who gained adherents as they made pilgrimages through Europe during years of turmoil in order to receive divine favour. Their symptoms [visions, fainting, tremor] are predictable for any large population engaging in prolonged dancing, emotional worship, and fasting. Their actions have been 'mistranslated' by contemporary scholars evaluating the participants' behaviours per se, removed from their regional context and meaning. Tarantism was a regional variant of dancing mania that developed into a local tradition, primarily in southern Italy."13
MANIA :
Although it is far from certain that Lycosa tarantula causes such severe symptoms as are attributed to its bite, they still may be considered useful in the sense of being phenomena associated with this spider. Besides, its symptoms have been many times confirmed in practice. The following is an account by Giorgio Baglivi [1669-1707], professor of anatomy and medicine at Rome, of the occurrences in southern Italy. [References 1 to 8 in Allen's Encyclopedia; it should be noted that sources 4 and 5 refer to the effects of the bite of a scorpion!] "A few hours after the bite the patients have great anguish of the heart, great dejection, but greater difficulty in breathing; they complain in a mournful voice, roll their eyes, and when asked by bystanders where they suffer, they either do not reply or point out the affected region by placing the hand upon the chest, as if the heart were affected more than all else. [These symptoms markedly resemble the effects of the bite by the 'malmignatte', a Mediterranean variety of Latrodectus mactans.] The symptoms observed after the bite of a tarantula are not constant and common to each person, neither are they all produced by each tarantula, but they vary according to the variety of the tarantula, the temperament of the diseased person, and greater or less summer heat. It has been observed that tarentulas in the more northern region of Apulia are fiercer; the bitten people suffer sever symptoms; esp. they are charmed by various colours, green, blue etc., but rarely by dark colours. And if approached by people dressed in a strong colour, which is unpleasant to them, they must retire; for at sight of the annoying colour they are immediately seized with anguish of heart and renewal of the symptoms. Different symptoms are produced by different varieties of tarentulas. The tarantula subalbida causes slight pain, followed by itching, sharp pain in the abdomen and diarrhoea. The tarantula stellata causes more severe pain and itching, stupor, heaviness and pain in the head, trembling of the whole body, etc. The tarantula uvea causes, besides the above symptoms, swelling, great pain in the bitten part, spasm, chill, cold perspiration over the whole body, aphonia, inclination to vomit, tension of the trunk and chest, distension of the abdomen, etc. There are numerous and incredible symptoms of tarentula, many of which seem dependent on a depraved imagination; it will not be far from the truth if we report that after the intense severity of the symptoms apparent on the first days has declined, there is a peculiar melancholy, a bending forward of the neck, until either by dancing, or music, or by change of age the poisonous characteristics are eliminated from the blood and nervous fluids, which fortune is rarely attained, for having once been bitten, it is certainly evident that they cannot be restored to health. Many symptoms confirm this assertion of the nature of the depraved fancy; for many have sought the sepulchre and lonely places, and even extended themselves upon the bier. Desperate, they court dissolution. Maidens and wives, otherwise virtuous, the restraints of modesty being loosed, sigh deeply, howl, make indecent gestures, expose their sexual organs, are fond of pensile movements, etc., some at length twist about in their own garments, and take excessive delight in such movements. Others like to strike with whips on the buttocks, heels, feet, back, etc. Others have a great desire to run. Also strange fancies in regard to colours are observed; for people bitten by tarentulas are charmed by some colours, and on the contrary, greatly repelled by others, and according to the degree of the perverted fancy in turn, refreshed and made miserable by various colours. ... He immediately felt intense pain in the bitten spot, and fell to the ground with coldness of the body; with bristling of the hair, pain in the chest, tension of the trunk, the legs very weak, he sighed, complained, said that he was suffocating, wished to cry out, but could not. The next morning he was taken by his neighbours to the town where music was called in; he immediately began to dance, he was bathed in perspiration, was sleepless for a week, drank pure wine; did not evacuate the bowels for four days, desired nothing, wished to be bathed in water, liked a red colour, pursuing with the greatest hatred anything blue, which he tore to pieces and trampled under foot. At night he held his heels in his hands to scratch them, in which manner he was able to get a little sleep; he ate little or nothing; but dancing for almost a week, he was cured by the perspiration and music. ... The tarantula being killed, he returned home, but on the way suddenly fell to the ground, as if struck by apoplexy, followed by shortness of breath, blackness of the face, hands, and other extremities, etc. The patient revived as he heard music, began to sigh, moved first his feet, then his hands and the rest of his body, and soon after, on being raised to his feet, danced vigorously, with sighs so deep as almost to frighten the bystanders. He rolled upon the ground, and kicked vigorously. In two hours from the beginning of the music he had entirely lost the blackness of the face and hands; the dance was repeated for three days, according to the custom, he was entirely restored by the perspiration thus induced. Each year, about the time of the bite, pain reappeared in the affected part with all the above symptoms, in less intensity, however; and unless he anticipated the assailing paroxysm with music and dancing, he was suddenly seized with the same symptoms, whence, when thus attacked about the time of the bite, he was carried from the field by his companions and restored by a little music."